| People v Montague |
| 2019 NY Slip Op 02750 [171 AD3d 1306] |
| April 11, 2019 |
| 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 Vernon Montague, Appellant. |
Stephen W. Herrick, Public Defender, Albany (Jessica M. Gorman of counsel), for appellant.
P. David Soares, District Attorney, Albany (Emily Schultz of counsel), for respondent.
Mulvey, J. Appeal, by permission, from an order of the County Court of Albany County (Lynch, J.), entered August 23, 2016, which denied defendant's motion pursuant to CPL 440.20 to set aside the sentence following his conviction of the crime of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the third degree, without a hearing.
On April 16, 2002, defendant was convicted of criminal sale of a controlled substance in the
third degree, a felony, and sentenced to a conditional discharge requiring him to attend a drug
treatment program. After absconding from the drug treatment program and violating the
conditions of his conditional discharge, defendant was resentenced on March 16, 2005 to a prison
term of 1
The People concede, and we agree, that County Court unlawfully sentenced defendant as a second felony offender pursuant to Penal Law § 70.06. As relevant here, when determining whether a prior felony constitutes a predicate felony conviction for purposes of being sentenced as a second felony offender, the "sentence [for the prior felony conviction] must have been imposed not more than [10] years before commission of the felony of which the defendant presently stands convicted" (Penal Law § 70.06 [1] [b] [iv]; see People v McNeill, 133 AD2d 506, 507 [1987], lv denied 70 NY2d 934 [1987]). In addition, a prior "sentence of conditional discharge . . . shall be deemed to be a sentence" (Penal Law § 70.06 [1] [b] [iii]).
Here, County Court erred in determining that the controlling date for the prior felony conviction is the March 2005 resentencing and not the April 2002 original sentence of a conditional discharge that was imposed with respect to that crime (see Penal Law § 70.06 [1] [b] [iii]; People v Thompson, 26 NY3d 678, 686-687 [2016]; People v Khapesi, 138 AD3d 622, 622 [2016], lv denied 27 NY3d 1152 [2016]). Inasmuch as the underlying felony was committed on February 2, 2014, as alleged in the indictment, the April 2002 sentence for the predicate felony was well beyond the 10-year look-back period (see Penal Law § 70.06 [1] [b] [iv]).[FN*] Accordingly, defendant was unlawfully sentenced as a second felony offender, and we therefore vacate the second felony offender adjudication and remit for resentencing.
Garry, P.J., Clark, Devine and Rumsey, JJ., concur. Ordered that the order is reversed, on the law, motion granted, and matter remitted to the County Court of Albany County for resentencing.