Opinion
2017–11852 Ind. No. 7701/16
01-30-2019
The PEOPLE, etc., Respondent, v. Steven CAMBRIDGE, Appellant.
Paul Skip Laisure, New York, N.Y. (Anjali Biala of counsel), for appellant. Eric Gonzalez, District Attorney, Brooklyn, N.Y. (Leonard Joblove and Victor Barall of counsel; Robert Ho on the memorandum), for respondent.
Paul Skip Laisure, New York, N.Y. (Anjali Biala of counsel), for appellant.
Eric Gonzalez, District Attorney, Brooklyn, N.Y. (Leonard Joblove and Victor Barall of counsel; Robert Ho on the memorandum), for respondent.
REINALDO E. RIVERA, J.P., SYLVIA O. HINDS–RADIX, VALERIE BRATHWAITE NELSON, ANGELA G. IANNACCI, JJ.
DECISION & ORDER
Appeal by the defendant, as limited by his motion, from a resentence of the Supreme Court, Kings County (Danny K. Chun, J.), imposed August 30, 2017, on the ground that the resentence was excessive.
ORDERED that the resentence is affirmed.
The defendant's waiver of his right to appeal was invalid, because the record does not demonstrate that the defendant understood the distinction between the right to appeal and the rights automatically forfeited by a plea of guilty (see People v. Chevoy, 167 A.D.3d 768, 87 N.Y.S.3d 500 ; People v. Castillo, 159 A.D.3d 1016, 70 N.Y.S.3d 862 ). Although the defendant executed a written waiver form, the Supreme Court never elicited from the defendant that he had read and understood the document before signing it (see People v. Gomez, 166 A.D.3d 1006, 1007, 86 N.Y.S.3d 751 ; People v. Castillo, 159 A.D.3d 1016, 70 N.Y.S.3d 862 ). Thus, the purported waiver does not preclude review of the defendant's excessive sentence claim. However, the resentence imposed was not excessive (see People v. Suitte, 90 A.D.2d 80, 455 N.Y.S.2d 675 ).
RIVERA, J.P., HINDS–RADIX, BRATHWAITE NELSON and IANNACCI, JJ., concur.