People v Boykins, 2024 NY Slip Op 03650 [229 AD3d 1156]

July 3, 2024

Appellate Division, Fourth Department

[*1]

The People of the State of New York, Respondent,

v

Jabari Boykins, Appellant.

Frank H. Hiscock Legal Aid Society, Syracuse (Thomas M. Leith of counsel), for defendant-appellant.

William J. Fitzpatrick, District Attorney, Syracuse (Elisabeth Dannan of counsel), for respondent.

Appeal from a judgment of the Onondaga County Court (Matthew J. Doran, J.), rendered August 5, 2022. The judgment convicted defendant upon his plea of guilty of criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree.

It is hereby ordered that the judgment so appealed from is unanimously affirmed.

Memorandum: Defendant appeals from a judgment convicting him upon his plea of guilty of criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree (Penal Law § 265.02 [8]). We affirm. On appeal, defendant contends that the waiver of the right to appeal is invalid and that the sentence is unduly harsh and severe. Even assuming, arguendo, that defendant’s waiver of the right to appeal is invalid ( see People v Thomas , 34 NY3d 545 , 564-566 [2019], cert denied 589 US —, 140 S Ct 2634 [2020]) and thus does not preclude our review of his challenge to the severity of the sentence ( see People v Baker , 158 AD3d 1296 , 1296 [4th Dept 2018], lv denied 31 NY3d 1011 [2018]), we conclude that the sentence is not unduly harsh or severe. Present—Lindley, J.P., Montour, Ogden, Keane and Hannah, JJ..