People v Watkins, 2019 NY Slip Op 04208 [172 AD3d 1411]

May 29, 2019

Appellate Division, Second Department

[*1]

The People of the State of New York, Respondent,

v

Tracy R. Watkins, Appellant.

Laurette D. Mulry, Riverhead, NY (Alfred J. Cicale of counsel), for appellant.

Timothy D. Sini, District Attorney, Riverhead, NY (Nicole L. Gallo of counsel), for respondent.

Appeal by the defendant, as limited by his motion, from a sentence of the Supreme Court, Suffolk County (Martin Efman, J.), imposed October 28, 2016, upon his plea of guilty, on the ground that the sentence was excessive.

Ordered that the sentence is affirmed.

The defendant’s purported waiver of his right to appeal was invalid ( see People v Bradshaw , 18 NY3d 257 , 267 [2011]; People v Brown , 122 AD3d 133 , 145 [2014]). The Supreme Court conflated the right to appeal with the rights automatically forfeited by a plea of guilty ( see People v Ortiz , 167 AD3d 658 , 658 [2018]). Moreover, the court failed to confirm that the defendant understood the nature of the right to appeal and the consequences of waiving it ( see People v Brown , 122 AD3d at 142). Thus, the purported waiver does not preclude appellate review of the defendant’s excessive sentence claim ( see People v Johnson , 157 AD3d 964 , 965 [2018]).

However, the sentence imposed was not excessive ( see People v Suitte , 90 AD2d 80 [1982]). Mastro, J.P., Leventhal, Miller, Duffy and LaSalle, JJ., concur..