| People v Mellerson |
| 2017 NY Slip Op 09089 [156 AD3d 1488] |
| December 22, 2017 |
| Appellate Division, Fourth Department |
[*1]
| The People of the State of New York, Respondent, v RickeyMellerson, Appellant. |
The Legal Aid Bureau of Buffalo, Inc., Buffalo (Michael S. Deal of counsel), fordefendant-appellant.
John J. Flynn, District Attorney, Buffalo (Daniel J. Punch of counsel), for respondent.
Appeal from a judgment of the Erie County Court (Thomas P. Franczyk, J.), renderedDecember 4, 2015. The judgment convicted defendant, upon his plea of guilty, of vehicularmanslaughter in the first degree.
It is hereby ordered that the judgment so appealed from is unanimously affirmed.
Memorandum: On appeal from a judgment convicting him upon a plea of guilty of vehicularmanslaughter in the first degree (Penal Law § 125.13 [1]), defendant contends thathis waiver of the right to appeal is invalid. Contrary to defendant's contention, "[t]he recordestablishes that County Court engage[d] . . . defendant in an adequate colloquy toensure that the waiver of the right to appeal was a knowing and voluntary choice . . ., and informed him that the waiver was a condition of the plea agreement" (People v Snyder, 151 AD3d 1939,1939 [4th Dept 2017] [internal quotation marks omitted]; see People v Lopez, 6 NY3d 248, 256 [2006]). Contrary todefendant's further contention, the valid waiver of the right to appeal the "conviction andsentence," which was made after defendant was informed of the maximum potential sentence(see People v Lococo, 92 NY2d 825, 827 [1998]; People v Hidalgo, 91 NY2d733, 737 [1998]), encompasses his challenge to the severity of the sentence (cf. People v Maracle, 19 NY3d925, 928 [2012]). Defendant is thus precluded from "subsequently eviscerat[ing the plea]bargain by asking an appellate court to reduce the sentence in the interest of justice"(Lopez, 6 NY3d at 255-256). Present—Whalen, P.J., Centra, Peradotto, Lindleyand Winslow, JJ.