DEFENDANT WAS NOT INFORMED OF THE DIRECT CONSEQUENCES OF HIS GUILTY PLEA PRIOR TO ENTERING THE PLEA; THEREFORE THE PLEA WAS VACATED (FOURTH DEPT).

The Fourth Department, vacating defendant’s guilty plea, determined defendant was not provided with sufficient information about the direct consequences of his guilty prior to entering the plea:

… Supreme Court failed to inform [defendant] that a fine would be imposed and failed to advise him that, following his indeterminate term of imprisonment, he would be subject to a mandatory three-year period of conditional discharge, during which he would be required to install and maintain an ignition interlock device in his vehicle … . …

“The direct consequences of a plea—those whose omission from a plea colloquy makes the plea per se invalid—are essentially the core components of a defendant’s sentence: a term of probation or imprisonment, a term of postrelease supervision, a fine”… , and the failure to advise a defendant at the time of his or her guilty plea of a direct consequence of that plea “requires that [the] plea be vacated” … . Here, defendant was advised of the fine and mandatory conditional discharge for the first time immediately prior to sentencing, when the prosecutor stated that defendant would be required to pay “all mandatory fines [and] surcharges” and that the period of incarceration “would be followed by a conditional discharge for the ignition interlock to be enforced.” We note that preservation of defendant’s contention was not required under the circumstances of this case inasmuch as “defendant did not have sufficient knowledge of the terms of the plea at the plea allocution and, when later advised, did not have sufficient opportunity to move to withdraw [his] plea” … . People v Tung Nguyen, 2021 NY Slip Op 00724, Fourth Dept 2-5-21