Appeal by the defendant from a judgment of the Supreme Court, Kings County (Marras, J.), rendered November 19, 2004, convicting him of rape in the first degree, upon a jury verdict, and imposing sentence.
Ordered that the judgment is reversed, on the law, and a new trial is ordered.
“A defendant in a criminal case has a constitutional right to the effective assistance of counsel” (People v Larkins, 10 AD3d 694, 694 [2004]; see US Const 6th Amend; NY Const, art 1, § 6).
When the People offered into evidence a laboratory report indicating that the defendant’s DNA matched samples recovered from the complainant, the defense counsel failed to move to redact the portion of the laboratory report that reflected that samples of the defendant’s DNA had been recovered from a victim in a similar, unrelated crime of which the defendant had been convicted. In the absence of an independent basis for its admissibility (see generally People v Allweiss, 48 NY2d 40 [1979]; People v Molineux, 168 NY 264, 293 [1901]), of which there was none here, such evidence would have been inadmissible had the defense counsel raised an objection to it (see People v Foster, 295 AD2d 110, 113 [2002]; People v Jackson, 193 AD2d 621, 622 [1993]). As a result, the defense counsel’s failure to object permitted the jury to consider evidence of an uncharged crime that would otherwise have been excluded.
Critically, the defendant admitted that he had sexual relations with the complainant on the night in question and contested only the forcible nature of that encounter. Since the only two witnesses were the defendant and the complainant, whose testimony differed markedly, this case turned solely on issues of credibility. The Supreme Court had already recognized the prejudicial impact in these circumstances of evidence that the defendant had been involved in another, similar crime, in ruling that the testimony of the victim of that crime did not fall within any exception set forth in People v Molineux (supra at 293) and in limiting the People’s use of such evidence to impeach the credibility of the defendant, under People v Sandoval (34 NY2d 371, 375 [1974]). The failure of the defense counsel to
In light of our determination we need not reach the defendant’s remaining contentions, including those raised in his supplemental pro se brief. Crane, J.E, Krausman, Spolzino and Skelos, JJ., concur.