| People v Brown |
| 2018 NY Slip Op 08679 [167 AD3d 929] |
| December 19, 2018 |
| Appellate Division, Second Department |
[*1]
| The People of the State of New York,Respondent, v Corey Brown, Appellant. |
Paul Skip Laisure, New York, NY (Alice R.B. Cullina of counsel), for appellant.
Richard A. Brown, District Attorney, Kew Gardens, NY (Eric C. Washer of counsel; DeannaRusso on the memorandum), for respondent.
Appeal by the defendant, as limited by his motion, from a sentence of the Supreme Court,Queens County (Richard Buchter, J.), imposed January 5, 2015, upon his plea of guilty, on theground that the sentence was excessive.
Ordered that the sentence is affirmed.
"A defendant's valid waiver of the right to appeal includes waiver of the right to invoke theAppellate Division's interest-of-justice jurisdiction to reduce the sentence" (People v Lopez, 6 NY3d 248, 255[2006]). However, under the circumstances of this case, the defendant's purported waiver of hisright to appeal was invalid (see People vBradshaw, 18 NY3d 257, 264 [2011]; People v Martin, 162 AD3d 793 [2018]). In light of the defendant'sage, limited education, and reported mental health issues, the record does not demonstrate thatthe defendant grasped the concept of the appeal waiver and the nature of the right he wasforgoing, including the distinction between the right to appeal he was asked to give up as acondition of his plea agreement and other trial rights he automatically forfeited on his plea ofguilty (see People v Fuller, 163AD3d 715 [2018]; People vRichardson, 128 AD3d 735 [2015]). Since the defendant's purported appeal waiver wasinvalid, this Court is not precluded from exercising its interest-of-justice jurisdiction.
However, the sentence imposed was not excessive (see People v Suitte, 90 AD2d 80[1982]). Leventhal, J.P., Chambers, Cohen and Barros, JJ., concur.