| People v Aquino |
| 2020 NY Slip Op 03241 [184 AD3d 656] |
| June 10, 2020 |
| Appellate Division, Second Department |
[*1]
| The People of the State of New York,Respondent, v Leila Aquino, Appellant. |
Paul Skip Laisure, New York, NY (De Nice Powell of counsel), for appellant.
Eric Gonzalez, District Attorney, Brooklyn, NY (Leonard Joblove and Diane R. Eisner ofcounsel; Maria Torres on the memorandum), for respondent.
Appeal by the defendant, as limited by her motion, from a sentence of the Supreme Court,Kings County (Deborah Dowling, J.), imposed December 20, 2017, upon her plea of guilty, onthe ground that the sentence was excessive.
Ordered that the sentence is affirmed.
The defendant's purported waiver of her right to appeal was invalid (see People v Thomas, 34 NY3d545 [2019]; People v Brown,122 AD3d 133, 146 [2014]). The record does not demonstrate that the defendant understoodthat the appellate rights she was waiving were separate and distinct from the rights she waswaiving by entering her plea of guilty. Thus, "the record fails to demonstrate a full appreciationof the consequences of such waiver" (see People v Brown, 122 AD3d at 146 [internalquotation marks omitted]). Moreover, the Supreme Court's statement to the defendant that bywaiving her right to appeal, the defendant's "sentence and conviction will be final in this case,"without more, suggested that the waiver may be an absolute bar to the taking of an appeal (seePeople v Thomas, 34 NY3d at 565-568). The written waiver form does not overcome theambiguities in the court's explanation of the right to appeal because the waiver form does notcontain clarifying language that appellate review remained available for select issues (see34 NY3d at 565-568). Thus, the purported waiver does not preclude this Court's review of thedefendant's excessive sentence claim (see People v Fuller, 163 AD3d 715, 715 [2018]).
However, the sentence imposed was not excessive (see People v Suitte, 90 AD2d 80[1982]). Mastro, J.P., Leventhal, Miller, Duffy and LaSalle, JJ., concur.