| People v Gilbert |
| 2013 NY Slip Op 07637 [111 AD3d 1437] |
| November 15, 2013 |
| Appellate Division, Fourth Department |
| The People of the State of New York, Respondent, v JohnGilbert, Appellant. |
—[*1] R. Michael Tantillo, District Attorney, Canandaigua (James B. Ritts of counsel), forrespondent.
Appeal from a judgment of the Ontario County Court (William F. Kocher, J.),rendered March 16, 2011. The judgment convicted defendant, upon his plea of guilty, ofassault in the first degree, aggravated criminal contempt and endangering the welfare of achild (three counts).
It is hereby ordered that the judgment so appealed from is unanimously affirmed.
Memorandum: On appeal from a judgment convicting him upon his plea of guilty of,inter alia, assault in the first degree (Penal Law § 120.10 [1]) and aggravatedcriminal contempt (§ 215.52 [1]), defendant contends that he involuntarily enteredhis plea and that his negotiated sentence is unduly harsh and severe. Because defendantdid not move to withdraw his plea or to vacate the judgment of conviction, his challengeto the voluntariness of his plea is unpreserved for our review (see People v Weakfall, 108AD3d 1115, 1116 [2013]; People v Spears, 106 AD3d 1534, 1535 [2013]), and thenarrow exception to the preservation rule does not apply here (see People vLopez, 71 NY2d 662, 666 [1988]; People v Wissert, 85 AD3d 1633, 1634 [2011], lvdenied 17 NY3d 956 [2011]). In any event, defendant's contention lacks merit.Although defendant stated during the plea colloquy that he was "under a lot of pressure,"that statement alone did not render his plea involuntary.
Finally, given that defendant did not dispute that he slashed his wife's throat in frontof their children and came dangerously close to killing her, we conclude that defendant'snegotiated sentence is neither unduly harsh nor severe. Present—Smith, J.P.,Peradotto, Lindley, Valentino and Whalen, JJ.