Opinion
No. 570857/18
02-14-2024
The People of the State of New York, Respondent, v. Juan Garcia, Defendant-Appellant.
Unpublished Opinion
PRESENT: Hagler, P.J., Brigantti, Perez, JJ.
PER CURIAM.
In consolidated criminal proceedings, defendant appeals from a judgment of the Criminal Court of the City of New York, Bronx County (Bahaati E. Pitt, J.), rendered June 26, 2018, convicting him, upon his plea of guilty, of driving under the influence of alcohol and aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle in the third degree, and sentencing him, inter alia, to fines totaling $1,200.
Judgment of conviction (Bahaati E. Pitt, J.), rendered June 26, 2018, modified, on the law, to vacate defendant's conviction for aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle in the third degree, to dismiss the count of the accusatory instrument relating thereto, and to remit the $200 fine imposed on that conviction, if paid, and otherwise affirmed.
As the People now concede, the allegations in the accusatory instrument were insufficient to meet the elements of the charged offense of aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle in the third degree (see Vehicle and Traffic Law § 511[1][a]), due to the absence of any factual allegations indicating that defendant knew or had reason to know that his license had been suspended. Defendant made a valid waiver of his right to appeal (see People v. Thomas, 34 N.Y.3d 545 [2019], cert denied 589 U.S. __, 140 S.Ct. 2634 [2020]), which forecloses review of his excessive sentence claim. Regardless of the validity of the waiver of the right to appeal, we perceive no basis for reducing the sentence imposed on defendant for driving under the influence of alcohol (Vehicle and Traffic Law § 1192[2]). We note that although defendant now claims that he is indigent, he never sought relief from the fine by way of a CPL 420.10(5) motion for re-sentencing (see People v Toledo, 101 A.D.3d 571 [2012], lv denied 21 N.Y.3d 947 [2013]).