People v Johnson, 2024 NY Slip Op 02259 [226 AD3d 597]

April 25, 2024

Appellate Division, First Department

[*1]

The People of the State of New York, Respondent

v

Taivon Johnson, Appellant.

Caprice R. Jenerson, Office of the Appellate Defender, New York (Margaret E. Knight of counsel), and Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, New York (Alexandra L. Forbes of counsel), for appellant.

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

Judgments of resentence, Supreme Court, New York County (Ellen N. Biben, J.), rendered April 7, 2022, as amended June 1, 2022, resentencing defendant to an aggregate term of nine years, unanimously affirmed.

Upon remand by this Court (198 AD3d 544 [1st Dept 2021]) for a youthful offender determination ( see People v Rudolph , 21 NY3d 497 [2013]), the resentencing court denied defendant youthful offender treatment but reduced the original aggregate sentence of 11 years to 9 years. The court providently exercised its discretion in denying youthful offender treatment ( People v Drayton , 39 NY2d 580 [1976]). The seriousness of defendant’s crimes, which involved multiple instances of violent gang-related activity, outweighed the allegedly mitigating factors asserted by defendant. We perceive no basis for reducing the sentence or substituting a youthful offender adjudication. Concur—Webber, J.P., Friedman, González, Rosado, Michael, JJ..