People v. McAdams
| Decision Date | 02 February 1984 |
| Citation | 472 N.Y.S.2d 769,99 A.D.2d 855 |
| Parties | The PEOPLE of the State of New York, Respondent, v. Lance J. McADAMS, Appellant. |
| Court | New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division |
Richard A. Rothermel, Public Defender, Oneonta, for appellant.
Colin E. Ingham, Dist. Atty., Oneonta, for respondent.
Before MIKOLL, YESAWICH, WEISS and LEVINE, JJ.
Appeal from a judgment of the County Court of Otsego County, rendered April 11, 1983, which revoked defendant's probation and imposed a sentence of imprisonment.
This 17-year-old defendant was the driver and lookout in a burglary of the Laurens Central School in which two accomplices broke in and stole a synthesizer which was intended to be used in a band they were about to start. On December 6, 1982, defendant pleaded guilty to burglary in the third degree and, on January 10, 1983, he was accorded youthful offender treatment and placed on probation for a period of five years. When the crime was committed, defendant, who has an alcohol problem, concededly had been drinking. A special condition of his probation was that he not drink alcoholic beverages or enter or remain in any premises where alcoholic beverages are served for on-premises consumption. He admittedly violated this condition on March 18, 1983, and County Court thereupon resentenced him to an indeterminate term of imprisonment of one and one-third to four years, the maximum sentence which could be imposed. The claimed harshness and excessiveness of this sentence underlies this appeal.
Prior to involvement in this burglary, defendant had an unblemished criminal record and it does not appear that he was the guiding force behind this crime. Further, while there is no medical evidence to substantiate his counsel's claim that defendant suffers from the disease of alcoholism, as the probation report suggests and the sentencing court recognized by imposing as a condition of probation that defendant not drink alcoholic beverages, alcohol abuse is defendant's chief problem. Given that his difficulties are alcohol related, that he is aware of this and is willing to cooperate with the county mental health clinic in an effort to address the problem, his continued confinement serves no legitimate penal purpose whether it be society's protection, rehabilitation or deterrence.
Although we are fully mindful of the principle that sentences are to be formulated so as to deal with the particular needs and circumstances of the...
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People v. Howland
...stemming from his participation in a break-in at the Laurens Central School during which a synthesizer was taken (see People v. McAdams 99 A.D.2d 855, 472 N.Y.S.2d 769). In March 1983, defendant was found to have violated the conditions of probation by failing to participate in the Teen Cha......