People v Mowery
2023 NY Slip Op 00764 [213 AD3d 1300]
February 10, 2023
Appellate Division, Fourth Department
Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431.
As corrected through Wednesday, March 29, 2023


[*1]
 The People of the State of New York, Respondent,
v
William Mowery, Appellant.

The Legal Aid Bureau of Buffalo, Inc., Buffalo (John J. Morrissey of counsel), for defendant-appellant.

John J. Flynn, District Attorney, Buffalo (Daniel J. Mattle of counsel), for respondent.

Appeal from a judgment of the Supreme Court, Erie County (Deborah A. Haendiges, J.), rendered January 15, 2019. The judgment convicted defendant upon a plea of guilty of strangulation in the second degree.

It is hereby ordered that the judgment so appealed from is unanimously affirmed.

Memorandum: On appeal from a judgment convicting him upon his plea of guilty of strangulation in the second degree (Penal Law § 121.12), defendant contends that his waiver of the right to appeal is invalid and that his sentence is unduly harsh and severe. Even assuming, arguendo, that defendant's waiver of the right to appeal is invalid and therefore does not preclude our review of his challenge to the severity of his sentence (see People v Seay, 201 AD3d 1361, 1361-1362 [4th Dept 2022]), we conclude that the sentence is not unduly harsh or severe. Present—Whalen, P.J., Smith, Curran, Bannister and Ogden, JJ.