FAILURE TO FOLLOW PROCEDURE FOR SENTENCING A SECOND FELONY OFFENDER RENDERED THE SENTENCE ILLEGAL, SENTENCE CANNOT STAND DESPITE FAILURE TO RAISE THE ISSUE ON APPEAL 4TH DEPT.
Although the issue was not raised on appeal, the Fourth Department determined the failure to follow the procedure for sentencing a second felony offender required resentencing:
We address the illegality of “the sentence . . . despite defendant’s failure to raise the issue in the trial court or on appeal” … . The presentence report available to the court and uncontested by the parties at sentencing indicates that defendant had been convicted of a prior felony for which he may have been sentenced within the 10-year period preceding commission of the first count of CSCS in the third degree, as tolled by Penal Law § 70.06 (1) (b) (v) and excluding from that statutory period the time during which defendant was incarcerated on the prior felony … . Where, as here, “information available to the court or to the [P]eople prior to sentencing for a felony indicate[d] that . . . defendant may have previously been subjected to a predicate felony conviction” … , “the People were required to file a second felony offender statement in accordance with CPL 400.21 and, if appropriate, the court was then required to sentence defendant as a second felony offender” … The People nevertheless failed to file a second felony offender statement herein, and the court illegally sentenced defendant, a known predicate felon, as a first felony drug offender … . Moreover, as the People correctly concede, if defendant was properly sentenced as a first felony drug offender, the imposition of three years of postrelease supervision is illegal because the applicable period for such an offender upon conviction of a class B felony is “not less than one year and no more than two years” … . Inasmuch as we cannot allow an illegal sentence to stand, we modify the judgment by vacating the sentence imposed, and we remit the matter to County Court for the filing of a predicate felony offender statement and resentencing in accordance with the law. People v Mattice, 2017 NY Slip Op 05558, 4th Dept 7-7-17
CRIMINAL LAW (SENTENCING, SECOND FELONY OFFENDER, FAILURE TO FOLLOW PROCEDURE FOR SENTENCING A SECOND FELONY OFFENDER RENDERED THE SENTENCE ILLEGAL, SENTENCE CANNOT STAND DESPITE FAILURE TO RAISE THE ISSUE ON APPEAL 4TH DEPT)/APPEALS (SENTENCING, SECOND FELONY OFFENDER, FAILURE TO FOLLOW PROCEDURE FOR SENTENCING A SECOND FELONY OFFENDER RENDERED THE SENTENCE ILLEGAL, SENTENCE CANNOT STAND DESPITE FAILURE TO RAISE THE ISSUE ON APPEAL 4TH DEPT)/SENTENCING (SECOND FELONY OFFENDER, FAILURE TO FOLLOW PROCEDURE FOR SENTENCING A SECOND FELONY OFFENDER RENDERED THE SENTENCE ILLEGAL, SENTENCE CANNOT STAND DESPITE FAILURE TO RAISE THE ISSUE ON APPEAL 4TH DEPT)/SECOND FELONY OFFENDERS (FAILURE TO FOLLOW PROCEDURE FOR SENTENCING A SECOND FELONY OFFENDER RENDERED THE SENTENCE ILLEGAL, SENTENCE CANNOT STAND DESPITE FAILURE TO RAISE THE ISSUE ON APPEAL 4TH DEPT)