| People v Johnson |
| 2014 NY Slip Op 00123 [113 AD3d 635] |
| January 8, 2014 |
| Appellate Division, Second Department |
| The People of the State of New York,Respondent, v Anton Johnson, Appellant. |
—[*1] Richard A. Brown, District Attorney, Kew Gardens, N.Y. (John M. Castellano andMerri Turk Lasky of counsel; Jonathan K. Yi on the brief), for respondent.
Appeal by the defendant from a judgment of the Supreme Court, Queens County(Hirsch, J.), rendered June 26, 2012, convicting him of burglary in the third degree,criminal mischief in the second degree, possession of burglar's tools, criminal possessionof stolen property in the fifth degree, aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehiclein the first degree, failure to stop at an intersection, and operating a motor vehicle andpermitting it to be operated in this state without having in full force financial security,upon his plea of guilty, and imposing sentence.
Ordered that the judgment is affirmed.
The defendant's purported waiver of his right to appeal was invalid. The record doesnot demonstrate that the defendant "grasped the concept of the appeal waiver and thenature of the right he was forgoing" (People v Bradshaw, 18 NY3d 257, 267 [2011]; see People v Springer, 109AD3d 557, 557 [2013] [internal quotation marks omitted]; People v Grant, 83 AD3d862, 862-863 [2011]). Therefore, "notwithstanding the written appeal waiver form,it cannot be said that defendant knowingly, intelligently and voluntarily waived his rightto appeal" (People v Bradshaw, 18 NY3d at 267; see People v Elmer, 19 NY3d501, 510 [2012]; People vVasquez, 101 AD3d 1054, 1055 [2012]; cf. People v Ramos, 7 NY3d737, 738 [2006]). Accordingly, review of the defendant's excessive sentence claim isnot precluded.
Nevertheless, the sentence imposed was not excessive (see People v Suitte,90 AD2d 80 [1982]). Mastro, J.P., Balkin, Sgroi and Hinds-Radix, JJ., concur.