| People v Thomas |
| 2009 NY Slip Op 05398 [63 AD3d 642] |
| June 30, 2009 |
| Appellate Division, First Department |
| The People of the State of New York,Respondent, v Donnell Thomas, Also Known as Raymond Rodriguez,Appellant. |
—[*1] Robert T. Johnson, District Attorney, Bronx (Kayonia L. Whetstone of counsel), forrespondent.
Judgment, Supreme Court, Bronx County (John P. Collins, J.), rendered September 6, 2007,convicting defendant, upon his plea of guilty, of criminal sale of a controlled substance in thefourth degree, and sentencing him, as a second felony offender, to a term of 4 to 8 years,unanimously affirmed.
Defendant's unpreserved challenges to the validity of his plea do not come within the narrowexception to the preservation requirement (see People v Lopez, 71 NY2d 662 [1988]),and we decline to review them in the interest of justice. As an alternative holding, we also rejectthem on the merits. The record establishes that defendant knowingly, intelligently, andvoluntarily pleaded guilty (see People v Fiumefreddo, 82 NY2d 536, 543 [1993]).Defendant pleaded guilty twice in this case, and the second plea differed from the first only tothe extent of reducing the degree of the crime for defendant's benefit, thereby qualifying him fora more lenient sentence than the one to which he had originally agreed. The second pleaproceeding validly incorporated by reference the full allocution, including defendant's rightsunder Boykin v Alabama (395 US 238 [1969]), that had been conducted at the first pleaproceeding.
Defendant's claim that the court should have conducted an inquiry into the circumstances ofhis failure to complete a drug program is also unpreserved and we decline to review it in the[*2]interest of justice. As an alternative holding, we also reject iton the merits.
We perceive no basis for reducing the sentence. Concur—Mazzarelli, J.P., Saxe,Catterson, DeGrasse and Abdus-Salaam, JJ.