People v Cruceta-Castillo, 2024 NY Slip Op 05418 [231 AD3d 683]

October 31, 2024

Appellate Division, First Department

[*1]

The People of the State of New York, Respondent,

v

Marcos Cruceta-Castillo, Appellant.

Twyla Carter, The Legal Aid Society, New York (Sylvia Lara Altreuter of counsel), for appellant.

Alvin L. Bragg, Jr., District Attorney, New York (Jamie Masten of counsel), for respondent.

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Laurie Peterson, J.), rendered February 15, 2019, convicting defendant, upon his plea of guilty, of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the fifth degree and resisting arrest, and sentencing him to five years of probation concurrent with a jail term of nine months, unanimously affirmed.

Defendant’s challenge to his waiver of indictment is unpreserved and forfeited by his valid guilty plea ( see People v Abreu , 189 AD3d 419 , 420 [1st Dept 2020], lv denied 36 NY3d 1055 [2021]), and we decline to review it in the interest of justice. As an alternative holding, we reject it on the merits. The record demonstrates that defendant validly waived his right to be prosecuted by indictment ( see id. at 419-420; see also People v Myers , 32 NY3d 18 , 21, 23 [2018]), and that the Spanish language interpreter, who was present in court, translated the waiver of indictment for defendant ( see Abreu , 189 AD3d at 420). Concur—Webber, J.P., Oing, Kapnick, Kennedy, JJ..