Opinion
April 29, 2011.
Appeal from an adjudication of the Livingston County Court (Robert B. Wiggins, J.), rendered April 13, 2010. Defendant was adjudicated a youthful offender upon his plea of guilty to burglary in the first degree.
Present — Scudder, P.J., Centra, Carni, Sconiers and Green, JJ.
It is hereby ordered that said appeal is unanimously dismissed.
Memorandum:
The People purport to appeal from a sentence imposing a term of incarceration upon defendant's plea of guilty of burglary in the first degree (Penal Law § 140.30), after County Court found that defendant was a youthful offender. The People contend that the court abused its discretion in granting defendant youthful offender status and that, as a result, the sentence imposed is invalid as a matter of law. We conclude that the appeal must be dismissed. "CPL 450.30 (2) authorizes the People to appeal from a sentence that is invalid as a matter of law" ( People v Cosme, 80 NY2d 790, 792), but that statute does not authorize the People to appeal from a youthful offender finding ( see generally People v Calderon, 79 NY2d 61, 63-64, 67). Indeed, upon finding that an individual is a youthful offender, "the court must direct that the conviction be deemed vacated and replaced by a youthful offender finding[,] and the court must sentence the defendant pursuant to section 60.02 of the penal law" (CPL 720.20 [emphasis added]). "[T]he youthful offender finding and the youthful offender sentence imposed thereupon constitute a `youthful offender adjudication'" ( Calderon, 79 NY2d at 65). Here, the People do not allege that the sentence of incarceration of 11/3 to 4 years is illegal. Rather, "in the guise of challenging the sentence imposed, the People are in essence attacking the validity of the defendant's underlying [youthful offender finding,] . . . [which CPL 450.30 (2)] does not permit them to do" ( Cosme, 80 NY2d at 792).