Opinion
01-26-2017
The PEOPLE of the State of New York, Respondent, v. Julio PAREDES, Defendant–Appellant.
The Legal Aid Society, New York (Seymour W. James, Jr. of counsel), for appellant. Darcel D. Clark, District Attorney, Bronx (Paul A. Andersen of counsel), for respondent.
The Legal Aid Society, New York (Seymour W. James, Jr. of counsel), for appellant.
Darcel D. Clark, District Attorney, Bronx (Paul A. Andersen of counsel), for respondent.
Order, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Joseph J. Dawson, J.), entered August 6, 2014, which adjudicated defendant a level three predicate sex offender pursuant to the Sex Offender Registration Act (Correction Law art. 6–C), unanimously affirmed, without costs.
Defendant's prior felony sex crime conviction automatically resulted in an override to risk level three (see People v. Howard, 27 N.Y.3d 337, 342, 33 N.Y.S.3d 132, 52 N.E.3d 1158 [2016] ). Accordingly, defendant qualifies as a level three offender independently of any point assessments. In any event, defendant's challenges to particular point assessments are unavailing. The court also providently exercised its discretion when it declined to grant a downward departure (see People v. Gillotti, 23 N.Y.3d 841, 994 N.Y.S.2d 1, 18 N.E.3d 701 [2014] ). The mitigating factors cited by defendant were insufficiently substantiated and were outweighed by the seriousness of the underlying crime and defendant's prior felony conviction of a sex offense.
ACOSTA, J.P., MAZZARELLI, FEINMAN, WEBBER, JJ., concur.