People v Royster, 2022 NY Slip Op 01812 [203 AD3d 956]

March 16, 2022

Appellate Division, Second Department

[*1]

The People of the State of New York, Respondent,

v

Ron Royster, Jr., Appellant.

Thomas R. Villecco, Jericho, NY, for appellant.

David M. Hoovler, District Attorney, Goshen, NY (Andrew R. Kass of counsel), for respondent.

Appeal by the defendant from a judgment of the County Court, Orange County (Craig Stephen Brown, J.), rendered December 12, 2019, convicting him of attempted criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree, upon his plea of guilty, and imposing sentence.

Ordered that the judgment is affirmed.

The record does not establish that the defendant’s waiver of the right to appeal was knowing, voluntary, and intelligent, as the County Court mischaracterized the nature of the right to appeal by stating that the defendant’s conviction and sentence would be final ( see People v Shanks , 37 NY3d 244 , 252 [2021]; People v Bisono , 36 NY3d 1013 , 1017-1018 [2020]; People v Bradshaw , 18 NY3d 257 , 264 [2011]), and the written waiver form did not clarify that appellate review remained available for select issues ( see People v Thomas , 34 NY3d 545 , 566 [2019]; People v Brown , 195 AD3d 943 [2021]). Thus, the purported waiver does not preclude this Court’s review of the defendant’s excessive sentence claim.

Nevertheless, the sentence imposed was not excessive ( see People v Suitte , 90 AD2d 80 [1982]). Brathwaite Nelson, J.P., Chambers, Roman and Zayas, JJ., concur..