People v Hill
2024 NY Slip Op 05544
Decided on November 12, 2024
Appellate Division, First Department
Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431.
This opinion is uncorrected and subject to revision before publication in the Official Reports.


Decided and Entered: November 12, 2024
Before: Manzanet-Daniels, J.P., Pitt-Burke, Rosado, O'Neill Levy, Michael, JJ.

Ind. No. 3424/19 Appeal No. 3003 Case No. 2022-02667

[*1]The People of the State of New York, Respondent,

v

Maurice Hill, Defendant-Appellant.




Jenay Nurse Guilford, Center for Appellate Litigation, New York (Benjamin Wiener of counsel), for appellant.

Alvin L. Bragg, Jr., District Attorney, New York (Andrew H. Chung of counsel), for respondent.



Appeal from judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Melissa Jackson, J.), rendered June 2, 2022, convicting defendant, upon his plea of guilty, of attempted criminal possession of a controlled substance in the fifth degree, and sentencing him, as a second felony offender, to a conditional discharge for a period of three years, unanimously dismissed.

Defendant, currently a fugitive, having absconded in an unrelated case, is not presently available to obey the mandate of the court (see People v Taveras, 10 NY3d 227, 232 [2008]; People v De Los Dios, 143 AD3d 419 [1st Dept 2016]; People v Law, 12 AD3d 192 [1st Dept 2004]). Were we not dismissing the appeal, we would affirm, concluding that defendant's valid waiver of his right to appeal barred his claims, which, in any event, are unavailing.

THIS CONSTITUTES THE DECISION AND ORDER OF THE SUPREME COURT, APPELLATE DIVISION, FIRST DEPARTMENT.

ENTERED: November 12, 2024