An upstate appeals panel has ordered a new trial for a defendant it says was not informed by the trial judge of the contents of a note sent by jurors before they found him guilty of burglary and grand larceny.
Ruling on a CPL 310.30 motion filed by Ronald Brink, the Appellate Division, Fourth Department, panel ordered a new trial for second-degree burglary. It also said Brink’s fourth-degree grand larceny conviction—reduced to petit larceny in an earlier appeal—should be dismissed without prejudice, if prosecutors wish to re-present the charge to a grand jury.
