Opinion
December 24, 1973
Appeal by defendant from a judgment of the County Court, Rockland County, rendered February 27, 1973, convicting him of arson in the third degree, upon a jury verdict, and sentencing him to an indeterminate prison term not to exceed three years. Judgment modified, as a matter of discretion in the interest of justice, by reducing the sentence to probation for a period of five years (cf. Penal Law, § 65.00, subd. 3, par. [a], cl. [i]). As so modified, judgment affirmed and case remanded to the County Court, Rockland County, (1) for the fixing of the conditions of probation, which shall include the requirement that defendant shall submit to such psychiatric counseling assistance as shall be determined by the County Court and (2) for further proceedings to require defendant to surrender himself in order that execution of the judgment, as modified hereby, be commenced or resumed. In our opinion, the interests of society and the ends of justice will be adequately served by reducing this first offender's sentence to probation for five years. Hopkins, Acting P.J., Munder, Martuscello, Shapiro and Brennan, JJ., concur.