Opinion
2015-10-22
The PEOPLE of the State of New York, Respondent, v. Gilbert SUAREZ, Defendant–Appellant.
Seymour W. James, Jr., The Legal Aid Society, New York (Jonathan Garelick of counsel), for appellant. Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., District Attorney, New York (Joshua L. Haber of counsel), for respondent.
Seymour W. James, Jr., The Legal Aid Society, New York (Jonathan Garelick of counsel), for appellant. Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., District Attorney, New York (Joshua L. Haber of counsel), for respondent.
Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Michael R. Sonberg, J.), rendered October 9, 2012, as amended October 15, 2012, convicting defendant, upon his plea of guilty, of criminal sale of a controlled substance in the first degree and criminal possession of a controlled substance in the first and third degrees, and sentencing him to concurrent terms of 8 years, unanimously affirmed.
Defendant's argument that his guilty plea was invalid because the court misstated one of his rights under Boykin v. Alabama, 395 U.S. 238, 89 S.Ct. 1709, 23 L.Ed.2d 274 (1969) is unpreserved ( see e.g. People v. Jackson, 114 A.D.3d 807, 979 N.Y.S.2d 704 [2d Dept.2014], lv. denied 22 N.Y.3d 1199, 986 N.Y.S.2d 420, 9 N.E.3d 915 [2014] ), and we decline to review it in the interest of justice. Unlike the situation in People v. Tyrell, 22 N.Y.3d 359, 364, 981 N.Y.S.2d 336, 4 N.E.3d 346 (2013), defendant had the opportunity to raise the issue, and the deficiency was far short of a mode of proceedings error. As an alternative holding, we find that the record establishes the voluntariness of the plea ( see Tyrell, 22 N.Y.3d at 365, 981 N.Y.S.2d 336, 4 N.E.3d 346; see also People v. Harris, 61 N.Y.2d 9, 16–19, 471 N.Y.S.2d 61, 459 N.E.2d 170 [1983] ). The plea court's slip of the tongue in rendering the right to confront witnesses as the essentially similar “right to be confronted by” witnesses could not have undermined the validity of the plea. TOM, J.P., ANDRIAS, MOSKOWITZ, KAPNICK, JJ., concur.