| People v Stabb |
| 2022 NY Slip Op 04666 [207 AD3d 948] [207 AD3d 948] |
| July 21, 2022 |
| 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 Thomas H. Stabb Jr., Appellant. |
Veronica Reed, Schenectady, for appellant.
William G. Gabor, District Attorney, Wampsville (Robert A. Mascari of counsel), for respondent.
Appeal from a judgment of the County Court of Madison County (McDermott Jr., J.), rendered October 4, 2018, convicting defendant upon his plea of guilty of the crimes of disseminating indecent material to minors in the second degree and failure to register or verify as a sex offender.
Defendant, a level one registered sex offender, was charged with one count of
disseminating
indecent material to minors in the first degree and two counts of failure to register or
verify as a
sex offender. In satisfaction of the indictment, defendant pleaded guilty to the reduced
charge of
disseminating indecent material to minors in the second degree and one count of failure
to
register or verify as a sex offender, both class E felonies (see Penal Law
§ 235.21; Correction Law §§ 168-f [4]; 168-t). As
required by
the plea agreement, defendant executed a waiver of his right to appeal. County Court
sentenced
defendant, as a predicate felony offender, to concurrent prison terms of 2 to 4 years on
each
conviction. The initial uniform sentence and commitment form dated October 4, 2018
incorrectly
denoted that defendant was sentenced as a predicate sex offender and contained no
sentence for
the failure to register conviction. The record also contains a uniform sentence and
commitment
form dated October 22, 2018 that reflects a sentence of 2 to 4 years on each conviction
but
likewise denotes that defendant was sentenced as a predicate sex offender.[FN1] On April 8, 2019,
County Court
corrected defendant's sentence, finding that he could be sentenced as a second felony
offender on
the disseminating indecent material conviction but not on the failure to register
conviction.[FN2]
The court
accordingly resentenced defendant on the failure to register conviction by reducing the
prison
term to 1
On appeal, defendant argues that the waiver of appeal is invalid, the original sentence imposed on the failure to register conviction was illegal and that said conviction should be vacated. Initially, defendant's challenge to the legality of his sentence survives the waiver of appeal (see People v Lopez, 6 NY3d 248, 255 [2006]; People v Seaberg, 74 NY2d 1, 9-10 [1989]). However, defendant's challenge to the legality of the original sentence on October 4, 2018, as apparently amended October 22, 2018, is rendered academic by the April 8, 2019 resentencing (see People v Gary, 197 AD3d 1445, 1446 [2021]). Defendant does not raise any grounds upon which we could conclude that he was aggrieved by the initial sentencing errors, nor does he argue that he was entitled to any relief other than a resentence. Although defendant asks this Court to vacate his conviction for failure to register and dismiss that count of the indictment with prejudice, in the interest [*2]of justice, he has not argued that any aspect of that guilty plea was invalid so as to warrant vacating it.
Finally, the parties agree that, on the April 8, 2019 uniform sentence and commitment form, the box for "[d]eterminate" sentence was incorrectly checked in that defendant received only indeterminate sentences upon resentencing.[FN3] That scrivener's error can be corrected by amending the form (see People v Alger, 206 AD3d 1049, 1056 [2022]; People v Duggins, 192 AD3d 191, 196 [2021], lv denied 36 NY3d 1096 [2021]).[FN4]
Garry, P.J., Lynch, Clark, Pritzker and Reynolds Fitzgerald, JJ., concur. Ordered that the judgment is affirmed, and matter remitted for entry of an amended uniform sentence and commitment form.