People v Pearson
2008 NY Slip Op 07193 [55 AD3d 314]
October 2, 2008
Appellate Division, First Department
As corrected through Wednesday, December 10, 2008


The People of the State of New York, Respondent,
v
TerryPearson, Appellant.

[*1]Steven Banks, The Legal Aid Society, New York (Heidi Bota of counsel), for appellant.

Robert M. Morgenthau, District Attorney, New York (David M. Cohn of counsel), forrespondent.

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Michael R. Ambrecht, J.), rendered October18, 2006, convicting defendant, upon his plea of guilty, of criminal possession of a weapon in thethird degree, and sentencing him to a term of seven years, unanimously reversed, as a matter ofdiscretion in the interest of justice, the plea vacated, and the matter remanded for furtherproceedings.

During the plea allocution, the court did not inform defendant of any of the rights that he waswaiving as a result of his guilty plea (see Boykin v Alabama, 395 US 238 [1969]), and italso neglected to inform him of the enhanced sentence he potentially faced if he failed tosuccessfully complete a period of interim probation (see People v Achaibar, 49 AD3d 389 [2008], lv denied 10NY3d 931 [2008]). The court's inquiry consisted of determining that defendant would accept theplea agreement whereby he would undergo a period of "intensive probation supervision" prior tosentencing, that he was aware that a plea would give him a felony conviction, and that headmitting having possessed an unlicensed firearm. Thus, the record fails to establish thatdefendant intelligently and voluntarily entered his plea. Although defendant did not preservethese issues, we reach them in the interest of justice in view of the extreme deficiency of the pleaallocution (see People v Colon, 42AD3d 411 [2007]). Concur—Lippman, P.J., Gonzalez, Nardelli, Acosta andDeGrasse, JJ.


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