People v. Walker
| Decision Date | 27 June 2019 |
| Docket Number | 108896 |
| Parties | The PEOPLE of the State of New York, Respondent, v. Brandon WALKER, Appellant. |
| Court | New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division |
173 A.D.3d 1561
101 N.Y.S.3d 675 (Mem)
The PEOPLE of the State of New York, Respondent,
v.
Brandon WALKER, Appellant.
108896
Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Third Department, New York.
Calendar Date: June 6, 2019
Decided and Entered: June 27, 2019
Jeffrey L. Zimring, Albany, for appellant.
P. David Soares, District Attorney, Albany (Emily Schultz of counsel), for respondent.
Before: Garry, P.J., Egan Jr., Clark, Devine and Pritzker, JJ.
MEMORANDUM AND ORDER
Egan Jr., J.
Appeal from a judgment of the County Court of Albany County (Lynch, J.), rendered September 30, 2016, convicting defendant upon his plea of guilty of the crime of manslaughter in the first degree.
In satisfaction of a four-count indictment, defendant pleaded guilty to the reduced charge of manslaughter in the first degree and waived his right to appeal. Prior to sentencing, defendant moved to withdraw his plea, claiming that he was coerced into accepting the plea by defense counsel and a family member. Defendant was assigned new counsel and, following a hearing, County Court denied the motion. Thereafter, defendant was sentenced in accordance with the plea agreement to a prison term of 22 years followed by five years of postrelease supervision.
We affirm. Although defendant's contention that County Court abused its discretion in denying his motion to withdraw his guilty plea — which relates to the voluntariness of his plea — is not precluded by the appeal waiver and has been
preserved by his unsuccessful motion to withdraw his plea (see People v. Farnsworth, 140 A.D.3d 1538, 1539, 34 N.Y.S.3d 713 [2016] ; People v. Burns, 133 A.D.3d 1045, 1046, 20 N.Y.S.3d 669 [2015], lv denied 27 N.Y.3d 1149, 39 N.Y.S.3d 383, 62 N.E.3d 123 [2016] ), it is nevertheless without merit. "Whether to permit a defendant to withdraw his or her plea of guilty is left to the sound discretion of County Court, and withdrawal will generally not be permitted absent some evidence of innocence, fraud or mistake in its inducement" ( People v. Beaver, 150 A.D.3d 1325, 1325, 54 N.Y.S.3d 712 [2017] [internal quotation marks and citations omitted]; se...
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