| People v Pickett |
| 2008 NY Slip Op 02275 [49 AD3d 1207] |
| March 14, 2008 |
| Appellate Division, Fourth Department |
| The People of the State of New York, Respondent, v Clifford K.Pickett, Appellant. |
—[*1] Cindy F. Intschert, District Attorney, Watertown, for respondent.
Appeal from a judgment of the Jefferson County Court (Kim H. Martusewicz, J.), renderedOctober 6, 2006. The judgment convicted defendant, upon his plea of guilty, of manslaughter inthe second degree.
It is hereby ordered that the judgment so appealed from is unanimously affirmed.
Memorandum: Defendant appeals from a judgment convicting him upon his plea of guilty ofmanslaughter in the second degree (Penal Law § 125.15 [1]). Contrary to the contention ofdefendant, County Court did not abuse its discretion in denying his motion to withdraw his plea."Trial judges are vested with discretion in deciding plea withdrawal motions because they arebest able to determine whether a plea is entered voluntarily, knowingly and intelligently"(People v Alexander, 97 NY2d 482, 485 [2002]), and nothing in the record before uscalls into question the voluntary, knowing and intelligent nature of defendant's plea. Contrary tothe further contention of defendant, there is no requirement that he personally recite the factsunderlying his crime (see People v Brown, 305 AD2d 1068, 1069 [2003], lvdenied 100 NY2d 579 [2003]). Rather, "it was sufficient that [defendant] providedunequivocal affirmative responses to the court's questions, never made statements negating hisguilt and indicated that he was entering the plea because he was, in fact, guilty" (People v Williams, 35 AD3d 971,972 [2006], lv denied 8 NY3d 928 [2007]). Defendant further contends that his attorneyerroneously informed him that he could challenge the court's Molineux ruling on appeal,after entering his guilty plea. That alleged statement by defense counsel "was not placed on therecord at the time of the plea [and thus] is not entitled to judicial recognition" (People vRamos, 63 NY2d 640, 643 [1984]). "As a general rule, '[a]bsent a showing that defendant'splea is baseless, the Judge to whom the motion [to withdraw the plea] is addressed must beentitled to rely on the record to ascertain whether any promises, representations, implications andthe like were made to the defendant' and induced his plea of guilty" (id. at 642; seePeople v Frederick, 45 NY2d 520, 525 [1978]). We reject the contention of defendant thatdefense counsel's erroneous statement constituted ineffective assistance of counsel inasmuch asdefendant failed to demonstrate " 'that, but for counsel's errors, he would not have pleaded guiltyand would have insisted on going to trial' " (People v McDonald, 1 NY3d 109, 115 [2003], quoting Hill vLockhart, 474 US 52, 59 [1985]; see also People v Ford, 86 NY2d 397, 404-405[1995]). Present—Scudder, P.J., Martoche, Centra, Fahey and Peradotto, JJ.