BECAUSE THE PLEA AGREEMENT COULD NO LONGER BE COMPLIED WITH DEFENDANT’S GUILTY PLEA MUST BE VACATED; UNDER THE AGREEMENT DEFENDANT’S SENTENCE WAS TO RUN CONCURRENTLY WITH THE SENTENCE ON A SEPARATE INDICTMENT, BUT THAT SEPARATE INDICTMENT WAS DISMISSED AFTER APPEAL (FOURTH DEPT).
The Fourth Department, reversing defendant’s conviction by guilty plea, determined the inability to comply the plea agreement required the vacation of the plea. The plea was based on the promise that defendant’s sentence would be concurrent with the sentence imposed under a separate indictment. That separate indictment was dismissed after appeal:
Defendant appeals from a judgment entered in Livingston County convicting him upon a plea of guilty of criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree … . The plea satisfied another indictment pending against defendant in Livingston County (indictment No. 2014-042). Pursuant to the plea agreement, County Court sentenced defendant to a determinate term of imprisonment that was to run concurrently with a 10-year sentence previously imposed on defendant in Monroe County for criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree. We later reversed the Monroe County judgment and dismissed the indictment … . Defendant now contends, and the People correctly concede, that, inasmuch as his plea in Livingston County was induced by the promise of a concurrent sentence, which is no longer possible, the judgment must be reversed and the plea vacated … . This will result in the reinstatement of indictment No. 2014-042, which was satisfied by defendant’s plea … . People v Peterson, 2020 NY Slip Op 04691, Fourth Dept 8-20-20