People v Holmes, 2022 NY Slip Op 03483 [205 AD3d 653]

May 31, 2022

Appellate Division, First Department

[*1]

The People of the State of New York, Respondent,

v

Stanley Holmes, Appellant.

Robert S. Dean, Center for Appellate Litigation, New York (Megan D. Byrne of counsel), for appellant.

Alvin L. Bragg, Jr., District Attorney, New York (Michael J. Yetter of counsel), for respondent.

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Ruth Pickholz, J.), rendered April 3, 2017, as amended May 8, 2017, convicting defendant, upon his plea of guilty, of burglary in the second degree, and sentencing him, as a persistent violent felony offender, to a term of 16 years to life, unanimously affirmed.

There was no violation of defendant’s right to represent himself, because he “did not clearly and unequivocally request to proceed pro se” ( People v Duarte , 37 NY3d 1218 , 1218 [2022]). “Upon review of the record as a whole” ( id . at 1219), defendant’s isolated remark about representing himself “did not reflect a definitive commitment to self-representation that would trigger a searching inquiry by the trial court” ( id . [internal quotation marks and brackets omitted]). Defendant’s sole expression of interest in representing himself was followed, almost immediately, by his apparent agreement with the court’s observation that self-representation would be undesirable ( see People v Kelly , 14 AD3d 390 [1st Dept 2005], lv denied 4 NY3d 832 [2005]). Furthermore, defendant had ample opportunity to clarify his position but failed to do so. Concur—Acosta, P.J., Renwick, Singh, Moulton, Kennedy, JJ..