| People v Winfield |
| 2009 NY Slip Op 01516 [59 AD3d 747] |
| February 24, 2009 |
| Appellate Division, Second Department |
| The People of the State of New York,Respondent, v Joaquin Winfield, Appellant. |
—[*1] Thomas J. Spota, District Attorney, Riverhead, N.Y. (Thomas C. Costello of counsel), forrespondent.
Appeal by the defendant from an order of the County Court, Suffolk County (J. Doyle, J.),dated November 2, 2005, which, after a hearing, denied his motion for resentencing pursuant tothe Drug Law Reform Act of 2004 (L 2004, ch 738) on his conviction of criminal possession of acontrolled substance in the first degree, criminal possession of a controlled substance in the thirddegree, unlawful possession of a weapon in the fourth degree, and criminally using drugparaphernalia in the second degree, which sentence was originally imposed, upon a jury verdict,on August 12, 1997.
Ordered that the order is affirmed.
The Drug Law Reform Act of 2004 (L 2004, ch 738; hereinafter the 2004 DLRA)established a new sentencing structure for laws which were enacted in 1973 and were commonlyreferred to as the Rockefeller Drug Laws (see L 1973, ch 276, § 19). The 2004DLRA became effective January 13, 2005, and was to be applied prospectively (L 2004, ch 738,§ 41 [d-1]). A subsequent enactment of the Legislature, effective October 29, 2005,retroactively extended the revised sentencing provisions of the 2004 DLRA to certain qualifiedinmates who previously had been convicted of class A-II felonies (L 2005, ch 643, § 1).
The County Court, after a hearing, providently exercised its discretion in denying thedefendant's motion to be resentenced. The defendant has an extensive prior criminal historydating back to 1982 and was subjected to disciplinary action 53 times while incarcerated. Underthese circumstances, substantial justice dictated that the motion be denied (see L 2005,ch 643, § 1; People [*2]v Flores, 50 AD3d 1156 [2008]; People v Sanders, 36 AD3d 944,946 [2007]). Skelos, J.P., Dillon, Angiolillo and Eng, JJ., concur.