| People v Perez |
| 2013 NY Slip Op 06791 [110 AD3d 528] |
| October 17, 2013 |
| Appellate Division, First Department |
| The People of the State of New York,Respondent, v Ramon Perez, Appellant. |
—[*1] Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., District Attorney, New York (Sheila O'Shea of counsel), forrespondent.
Orders, Supreme Court, New York County (Laura A. Ward, J.), entered on or aboutApril 9, 2008 and April 23, 2010, each of which denied defendant's respective motionsfor resentencing pursuant to the Drug Law Reform Act of 2004 (L 2004, ch 738),unanimously affirmed.
The court properly exercised its discretion in determining that substantial justicedictated that defendant's resentencing application should be denied (L 2004, ch 738,§ 23; People v Sosa,18 NY3d 436, 443 [2012]). The court did not place excessive emphasis on the factthat defendant absconded before trial and remained a fugitive for many years, whileignoring defendant's alleged mitigating circumstances (compare People v Cruz, 96AD3d 693 [1st Dept 2012]). On the contrary, it also considered that the largequantity of drugs related to defendant's underlying conviction evinced a large scale drugoperation, rather than mere street-level sales; that defendant was armed with a loadedweapon on the day he was arrested; that he was convicted of another drug distributioncharge while he was a fugitive and was sentenced to 2½ years in Massachusetts onthat felony; and that defendant has refused to accept responsibility for the underlyingconviction or the one in Massachusetts. The court properly found that these factorsoutweighed the mitigating factors offered by defendant.
Although defendant requests, in the alternative, a reduction of his underlyingsentence, [*2]we do not find that a direct appeal from that26-year-old conviction is properly before us (compare People v Taveras, 63 AD3d 401 [1st Dept 2009]).In any event, there is no basis for reducing the sentence. Concur—Acosta, J.P.,Saxe, Renwick, DeGrasse and Richter, JJ.