ADJUDICATING DEFENDANT A YOUTHFUL OFFENDER FOR ONE CHARGE DID NOT REQUIRE A YOUTHFUL OFFENDER ADJUDICATION FOR AN UNRELATED CHARGE, EVEN THOUGH BOTH CHARGES WERE PART OF A JOINT PLEA AGREEMENT (THIRD DEPT).
The Third Department determined that the youthful offender adjudication for one charge did not require the court to adjudicate defendant a youthful offender for an unrelated charge, even though both charges were subject to a joint plea agreement:
Defendant’s primary contention is that County Court, having adjudicated him as a youthful offender on the unrelated charge, was also required to adjudicate him a youthful offender on the burglary charge. This is incorrect. Defendant relies upon CPL 720.20 (2), which provides, as relevant here, that, “[w]here an eligible youth is convicted of two or more crimes . . . set forth in two or more accusatory instruments consolidated for trial purposes, the court must not find [the youth] a youthful offender with respect to any such conviction . . . unless it finds him a youthful offender with respect to all such convictions” … . Contrary to defendant’s erroneous supposition, the accusatory instruments to which he pleaded guilty, i.e., the superior court informations charging him with burglary and the unrelated crime, were never “consolidated for trial purposes” so as to require a youthful offender adjudication on both or neither of the convictions (CPL 720.20 [2] …). Although both accusatory instruments were ultimately resolved under a joint agreement, defendant pleaded guilty to two separate superior court informations, and the record does not reflect that either party moved to consolidate them, that they were ordered joined for trial or, indeed, that they could have been properly joined (see CPL 200.20 [2], [4]; see also CPL 200.15). Consequently, “the sentencing court was authorized in its discretion to determine that the defendant was a youthful offender with respect to either or both convictions”… , and was not compelled to confer youthful offender status at sentencing on the burglary conviction. People v Turner, 2019 NY Slip Op 05718, Third Dept 7-18-19
