Opinion
9967 9967A 9967B Ind. 1479/2014 2373/2014 3275/2014
10-01-2019
The PEOPLE of the State of New York, Respondent, v. Willie BELLINGER, Defendant–Appellant.
Larry Sheehan, Bronx, for appellant. Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., District Attorney, New York (Michael J. Yetter of counsel), for respondent.
Larry Sheehan, Bronx, for appellant.
Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., District Attorney, New York (Michael J. Yetter of counsel), for respondent.
Friedman, J.P., Tom, Webber, Gesmer, Oing, JJ.
Judgments, Supreme Court, New York County (Edward J. McLaughlin, J.), rendered July 31, 2015, convicting defendant, upon his pleas of guilty, of gang assault in the first degree, conspiracy in the second degree and criminal possession of a controlled substance in the third degree, and sentencing him, as a second violent felony offender, to an aggregate term of 17 years, unanimously affirmed.
The court providently exercised its discretion in denying defendant's motion to withdraw his plea of guilty (see People v. Frederick, 45 N.Y.2d 520, 410 N.Y.S.2d 555, 382 N.E.2d 1332 [1978] ), which was made with the assistance of new counsel. The record establishes the voluntariness of the plea. Defendant's claim of coercive conduct by the attorney who represented him at the plea colloquy was unfounded. The fact that defendant gave monosyllabic responses to the court's questions did not render the plea invalid. "The court was not required to have defendant personally recite the facts underlying the crime during the plea colloquy where, as here, the record establishes that defendant confirmed the accuracy of the court's recitation of the facts" ( People v. Pryce, 148 A.D.3d 1629, 1630, 51 N.Y.S.3d 296 [4th Dept. 2017], lv denied 29 N.Y.3d 1085, 64 N.Y.S.3d 175, 86 N.E.3d 262 [2017] ).