| People v Jones |
| 2021 NY Slip Op 07032 [200 AD3d 1321] |
| December 16, 2021 |
| 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 Clayton Jones Jr., Appellant. |
Cliff Gordon, Monticello, for appellant.
Meagan K. Galligan, District Attorney, Monticello (Lisa M. Bondarenka of counsel), for respondent.
Appeal from a judgment of the County Court of Sullivan County (McGuire, J.), rendered March 1, 2019, convicting defendant upon his plea of guilty of the crimes of burglary in the third degree and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle in the third degree.
After defendant pleaded guilty to an unrelated burglary charge and was released pending
sentencing, he was arrested and subsequently charged in an eight-count indictment with burglary
in the third degree, grand larceny in the fourth degree and other crimes stemming from his theft
of a truck and entry into a business in the middle of the night while on release. A global
disposition was agreed to pursuant to which defendant would, among other terms, admit
violating the conditions of his release following his first guilty plea and enter a guilty plea to
burglary in the third degree under count 1 of the indictment and be sentenced, as a second felony
offender, to prison terms of 2
The indictment was set down for further proceedings and trial and, on the day scheduled for jury selection, defendant accepted a negotiated plea agreement pursuant to which he pleaded guilty to burglary in the third degree as charged in count 1 of the indictment, and to the charge of unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, a misdemeanor, as charged in count 2, as reduced and amended. The plea agreement included a waiver of appeal. Consistent with that agreement, defendant was sentenced, as an acknowledged second felony offender, to 3 to 6 years on the third-degree burglary conviction and one year in jail[FN*] on the misdemeanor conviction, to be served consecutively to his prison sentence on the earlier burglary conviction. Defendant appeals.
We affirm. Initially, as the People concede, defendant's waiver of appeal was invalid. Thus, defendant is not foreclosed from challenging the agreed-upon sentence as harsh and excessive (see People v Lopez, 6 NY3d 248, 256 [2006]; People v Mayeaux, 197 AD3d 1443, 1444 [2021]).
Defendant's guilty plea to burglarizing a business satisfied other charges, including the
separate acts of stealing a truck and possessing a controlled substance. It also avoided potential
consecutive sentences on the indicted charges (see Penal Law § 70.25 [2])
and persistent felony offender sentencing (see Penal Law § 70.10; CPL
400.20), and the sentence was less than the maximum authorized for a second felony offender for
third-degree burglary (see Penal Law § 70.06 [3] [d]). Under these
circumstances, we find no extraordinary [*2]circumstances or
abuse of discretion warranting a reduction of the agreed-upon sentence of 3 to 6 years ultimately
imposed (see CPL 470.15). Defendant's further contention that he was entitled to the
lower prison sentence agreed to earlier under the global disposition, i.e., 2
Egan Jr., J.P., Aarons, Pritzker, Reynolds Fitzgerald and Colangelo, JJ., concur. Ordered that the judgment is affirmed.