Opinion
14413 Ind. No. 2086/18 Case No. 2019–5888
10-19-2021
The PEOPLE of the State of New York, Respondent, v. Elvin MINAYA–RODRIGUEZ, Defendant–Appellant.
Robert S. Dean, Center for Appellate Litigation, New York (Danielle Krumholz of counsel), for appellant. Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., District Attorney, New York (Jillian Lewis of counsel), for respondent
Robert S. Dean, Center for Appellate Litigation, New York (Danielle Krumholz of counsel), for appellant.
Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., District Attorney, New York (Jillian Lewis of counsel), for respondent
Gische, J.P., Webber, Mazzarelli, Moulton, Pitt, JJ.
Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Laurie Peterson, J.), rendered September 7, 2018, as amended October 4, 2018, convicting defendant, upon his plea of guilty, of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the third degree, and sentencing him to a term of 1½ years, unanimously affirmed.
Defendant's challenge to the voluntariness of his plea is unpreserved, and we decline to review it in the interest of justice. "[W]here the defendant's recitation of the facts underlying the crime pleaded to clearly casts significant doubt upon the defendant's guilt or otherwise calls into question the voluntariness of the plea, ... the trial court has a duty to inquire further to ensure [the] guilty plea is knowing and voluntary" ( People v. Lopez, 71 N.Y.2d 662, 666, 529 N.Y.S.2d 465, 525 N.E.2d 5 [1988] ). Here, "[d]efendant said nothing during the plea colloquy or the sentencing proceeding that negated an element of the crime" ( People v. Pastor, 28 N.Y.3d 1089, 1090–1091, 45 N.Y.S.3d 317, 68 N.E.3d 42 [2016] ). While defendant made a number of comments suggesting that he did not know that the package he was carrying when arrested contained a controlled substance, he made these assertions at an earlier call of the calendar and "did not reiterate those statements at his plea allocution" ( People v. Negron, 222 A.D.2d 327, 327, 635 N.Y.S.2d 615 [1st Dept. 1995], lv denied 88 N.Y.2d 882, 645 N.Y.S.2d 457, 668 N.E.2d 428 [1996] ). The record shows that in response to the court's questions, defendant admitted his guilt as to all the elements of the crime (see People v. Adamson, 149 A.D.3d 534, 50 N.Y.S.3d 264 [1st Dept. 2017], lv denied 29 N.Y.3d 1089, 63 N.Y.S.3d 6, 85 N.E.3d 101 [2017] ).