People v Staten
2023 NY Slip Op 04237 [219 AD3d 1019]
August 10, 2023
Appellate Division, Third Department
Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431.
As corrected through Wednesday, October 4, 2023


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

Justin C. Brusgul, Altamont, for appellant.

Brian P. Conaty, Acting District Attorney, Monticello (Danielle K. Blackaby of counsel), for respondent.

Appeal from a judgment of the County Court of Sullivan County (Frank J. LaBuda, J.), rendered December 12, 2019, upon a verdict convicting defendant of the crime of strangulation in the second degree.

Defendant was indicted and charged with one count each of robbery in the first degree, strangulation in the second degree, assault in the second degree and criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree. Following a jury trial, defendant was convicted of strangulation in the second degree, and County Court—finding that the jury was deadlocked as to the remaining counts of the indictment—declared a mistrial as to those charges.[FN*] County Court thereafter sentenced defendant to a prison term of seven years followed by three years of postrelease supervision, and this appeal ensued.

We affirm. Although County Court indeed sentenced defendant to the maximum term of imprisonment that may be imposed for the crime of strangulation in the second degree (see Penal Law §§ 60.05 [5]; 70.02 [1] [c]; [3] [c]; 121.12), upon considering, among other factors, defendant's criminal history and the violent nature of the attack upon the victim, we do not find the sentence imposed to be unduly harsh or severe (see CPL 470.15 [6] [b]) and decline defendant's invitation to reduce it in the interest of justice.

Egan Jr., J.P., Lynch, Aarons, Pritzker and Fisher, JJ., concur. Ordered that the judgment is affirmed.

Footnotes


Footnote *:Defendant pleaded guilty in 2022—in full satisfaction of the outstanding charges—to criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree; a concurrent term of imprisonment was imposed.