People v. Phillip (309 A.D.2d 878, 2003)

Appeal by the defendant from a judgment of the Supreme Court, Queens County (McKay, J.), rendered July 24, 2001, convicting him of criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree, upon a jury verdict, and imposing sentence.

Ordered that the judgment is affirmed.

The defendant challenges the reasons offered by the prosecutor for using a peremptory challenge against two black jurors. However, contrary to the defendant’s contention, the trial court properly determined that the reasons offered by the prosecutor were not pretextual. The prosecutor proffered race-neutral reasons for exercising a peremptory challenge against the prospective jurors, and the burden then shifted to the defendant to prove that the peremptory challenge was used in a racially-discriminatory manner (see People v Payne, 88 NY2d 172, 181 [1996]; People v Allen, 86 NY2d 101, 104 [1995]). The defendant failed to satisfy his burden (see People v Payne, supra; People v Allen, supra; see also People v Turner, 294 AD2d 192 [2002]; People v Camarena, 289 AD2d 7 [2001]; People v Jones, 284 AD2d 46 [2001], affd 99 NY2d 264 [2002]).

The defendant’s remaining contentions either are unpreserved for appellate review, without merit, or harmless. Santucci, J.P., S. Miller, Goldstein and Cozier, JJ., concur.