People v Howe, 2011 NY Slip Op 01522 [82 AD3d 407]

March 1, 2011

Appellate Division, First Department

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Robert S. Dean, Center for Appellate Litigation, New York (Mark W. Zeno of counsel), for appellant. Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., District Attorney, New York (Naomi C. Reed of counsel), for respondent.

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Ruth Pickholz, J.), rendered July 17, 2009, convicting defendant, upon his plea of guilty, of four counts of assault in the first degree, and sentencing him, as a second violent felony offender, to concurrent terms of 10 years, unanimously affirmed.

The record establishes that defendant’s plea was knowing, intelligent and voluntary, and nothing in the plea allocution minutes casts doubt on his guilt ( see People v Toxey , 86 NY2d 725 [1995]; People v Lopez , 71 NY2d 662 [1988]). Defendant explicitly admitted his guilt of all requisite elements including intent.

At sentencing, defendant made a statement about his psychiatric history that appeared to be a request for leniency or for better psychiatric treatment in prison. However, he did not move to withdraw his plea. In the absence of such a motion, there was nothing to require a sua sponte inquiry by the court into the plea’s voluntariness ( see e.g. People v Riley , 264 AD2d 689 [1999], lv denied 94 NY2d 906 [2000]). Furthermore, there is nothing to suggest that defendant was mentally incompetent at the time of his plea or had a viable psychiatric defense to the charges. Concur—Gonzalez, P.J., Tom, Andrias, Renwick and Abdus-Salaam, JJ..