People v Ormsby
2011 NY Slip Op 07883 [89 AD3d 1244]
November 10, 2011
Appellate Division, Third Department
As corrected through Wednesday, January 4th, 2012


The People of the State of New York, Respondent, v Joseph G. Ormsby,Appellant.

[*1]Lisa A. Burgess, Indian Lake, for appellant.

Andrew J. Wylie, District Attorney, Plattsburgh (Timothy G. Blatchley of counsel), forrespondent.

Appeal from a judgment of the County Court of Clinton County (McGill, J.), rendered August 6,2010, convicting defendant upon his plea of guilty of the crime of criminal possession of a controlledsubstance in the third degree.

In satisfaction of a three-count indictment, defendant pleaded guilty to criminal possession of acontrolled substance in the third degree and waived his right to appeal. Under the terms of the pleaagreement, he was to be sentenced to 4½ years in prison followed by three years of postreleasesupervision. Defendant was sentenced accordingly and he now appeals.

Defendant contends that his sentence is illegal because he should have been sentenced to two yearsof postrelease supervision instead of three years. Preliminarily, we note that defendant's challenge to thelegality of the sentence is not precluded by his waiver of the right to appeal (see People v Greathouse, 62 AD3d1212, 1213 [2009], lv denied 13 NY3d 744 [2009]; People v Robertson, 46 AD3d 928, 929 [2007], lv denied 10NY3d 844 [2008]). Turning to the merits, Penal Law § 70.45 (2) (b) provides that the period ofpostrelease supervision imposed upon a defendant convicted of a class B felony under Penal Law§ 70.70 and sentenced to a determinate term of imprisonment "shall be not less than one year normore than two years." Defendant here was sentenced under Penal Law § 70.70 (2) (a) (i) andreceived a period of postrelease supervision of three years, which the People concede was error.Therefore, the judgment must be modified accordingly (see People v Robertson, 46 AD3d at929; People v [*2]Brill, 42 AD3d 823, 823 [2007], lv denied 9 NY3d960 [2007]).

Spain, J.P., Malone Jr., Kavanagh, Garry and Egan Jr., JJ., concur. Ordered that the judgment ismodified, on the law, by reversing so much thereof as imposed upon defendant a three-year period ofpostrelease supervision; sentence vacated to said extent and a two-year period of postreleasesupervision is imposed; and, as so modified, affirmed.


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