The Third Department determined the Oklahoma statute prohibiting possession of a firearm could not be used as a predicate felony in New York. The Oklahoma statute does not have an operability element. In New York operability is a required element:
County Court erred in sentencing defendant as a second felony offender, as the elements of his predicate Oklahoma felony were not “equivalent to those of a New York felony” … . As relevant here, the inquiry regarding equivalency is “limited to a comparison of the crimes’ elements as they are respectively defined in the foreign and New York penal statutes” … . Defendant was previously convicted under an Oklahoma statute prohibiting possession of a firearm by a felon; however, operability is not a required element of the Oklahoma statute … . In New York “[o]perability is a required element of the crime of criminal possession of a handgun, rifle or shotgun” … . Thus, as the comparable New York statute requires an element that the Oklahoma crime does not, defendant’s Oklahoma conviction cannot support a finding that he was a second felony offender … . People v Gibson, 2016 NY Slip Op 05668, 3rd Dept 7-28-16
CRIMINAL LAW (OKLAHOMA FIREARM STATUTE DOES NOT HAVE AN OPERABILITY ELEMENT AND CANNOT THEREFORE SERVE AS A PREDICATE FELONY IN NEW YORK)/PREDICATE FELONY (OKLAHOMA FIREARM STATUTE DOES NOT HAVE AN OPERABILITY ELEMENT AND CANNOT THEREFORE SERVE AS A PREDICATE FELONY IN NEW YORK)/SECOND FELONY OFFENDER (OKLAHOMA FIREARM STATUTE DOES NOT HAVE AN OPERABILITY ELEMENT AND CANNOT THEREFORE SERVE AS A PREDICATE FELONY IN NEW YORK)/SENTENCING (SECOND FELONY OFFENDER, OKLAHOMA FIREARM STATUTE DOES NOT HAVE AN OPERABILITY ELEMENT AND CANNOT THEREFORE SERVE AS A PREDICATE FELONY IN NEW YORK)