People v Sanchez |
2018 NY Slip Op 06155 [164 AD3d 1545] |
September 20, 2018 |
Appellate Division, Third Department |
Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431. |
The People of the State of New York,
Respondent, v Christopher Sanchez, Appellant. |
Jane M. Bloom, Monticello, for appellant.
D. Holley Carnright, District Attorney, Kingston (Joan Gudesblatt Lamb of counsel), for respondent.
Appeal from a judgment of the County Court of Ulster County (Williams, J.), rendered September 2, 2016, convicting defendant upon his plea of guilty of the crime of aggravated harassment of an employee by an inmate in the first degree.
Defendant was charged by indictment with aggravated harassment of an employee by an
inmate in the first degree as a result of an incident in which he threw urine at a correction officer.
Following plea negotiations in which County Court rejected the People's recommended sentence
of 1
After reviewing the presentence report prepared in connection with defendant's impending
sentencing, County Court concluded that he had apparently violated the sentencing conditions
and that it was considering an enhanced sentence. The court thereafter conducted an
Outley hearing (People v Outley, 80 NY2d 702 [1993]) at which the interviewing
probation officer who prepared the presentence report testified. The court found that, despite
being appropriately admonished, defendant had violated the conditions of the agreement by
providing untruthful and contradictory statements to the probation officer in that he had denied
throwing urine at the correction officer and, instead, claimed that he had thrown milk at her
because it was rotten. At sentencing, the court imposed the promised prison sentence of
2
We affirm. Defendant's contention that the agreed-upon prison sentence is harsh and excessive is precluded by his unchallenged valid oral and written waiver of appeal (see People v Sanders, 25 NY3d 337, 339-341 [2015]; People v Lopez, 6 NY3d 248, 256 [2006]; People v Rogers, 162 AD3d 1410, 1410 [2018]). We note that, while the promised sentence was the maximum second felony offender prison sentence for this crime (see Penal Law §§ 70.06 [3] [e]; 240.32), defendant received a benefit in exchange for his guilty plea in that County Court agreed not to pursue persistent felony offender sentencing and, thus, the waiver of appeal is enforceable (see People v Tarver, 149 AD3d 1350, 1350 [2017]). However, the $5,000 fine was not part of the plea agreement and was instead imposed as an enhancement. Defendant was never specifically advised that, if he violated the conditions of the plea agreement, the court could impose a fine, or the amount of any potential fine, as part of the sentence (see Penal Law § 80.00 [1] [a]).[FN3] Thus, we find that defendant's appeal waiver does not preclude his challenge to the fine as harsh and excessive (see People v Long, 117 AD3d 1326, 1327 [2014], lv denied 24 NY3d 1003 [2014]; cf. People v Brown, 163 AD3d 1269, 1269-1270 [2018]; People v Garrow, 147 AD3d 1160, 1162 [2017). Nonetheless, given defendant's violent criminal history, his untruthfulness during the probation interview and lack of remorse for his crime, and the contempt that he exhibited for the victim at sentencing, and after taking into consideration the mitigating factors cited by defendant including his mental health history, we do not find that the court abused its discretion in imposing a $5,000 fine as part of the sentence (see People v Oliver, 276 AD2d 930, 931 [2000]). We have examined defendant's remaining claims and determined that none has merit.
Garry, P.J., Egan Jr., Lynch, Aarons and Pritzker, JJ., concur. Ordered that the judgment is affirmed.