UPON REMITTAL AFTER THE INITIAL PERSISTENT FELONY OFFENSE SENTENCE WAS OVERTURNED, THE SENTENCING COURT PROPERLY RELIED ON ADDITIONAL INFORMATION TO AGAIN SENTENCE DEFENDANT AS A PERSISTENT FELONY OFFENDER (CT APP).
The Court of Appeal, reversing the Appellate Division, over an extensive dissent, determined the sentencing court, upon remittal after the initial persistent violent felony offender sentence was overturned on appeal, properly relied on additional information to again sentence defendant as a persistent violent felony offender:
Upon the appeal from defendant’s judgment of conviction and original sentence as a persistent violent felony offender in 2013, the People conceded that defendant’s prior incarceration dates did not provide sufficient tolling to qualify his 1987 conviction as a requisite predicate offense … . …
On remittal, Supreme Court resentenced defendant as a persistent violent felony offender, relying on supplemental evidence of defendant’s prior incarceration brought to the court’s attention in connection with collateral motion practice. Defendant appealed, and the Appellate Division, with one Justice dissenting, vacated defendant’s resentence and remitted for a second time. …
At the time of resentencing, Supreme Court was on notice of the supplemental evidence of defendant’s prior incarceration, which conclusively demonstrates that defendant is, in fact, a persistent violent felony offender. … [T]he Appellate Division did not limit its remittal …. … Supreme Court was not precluded from imposing the statutorily required sentence based on the evidence before it, particularly given that court’s “inherent authority to correct illegal sentences” … . People v Kaval, 2022 NY Slip Op 07022, CtApp 12-13-22
Practice Point: Here the appellate division overturned defendant’s sentence as a persistent felony offender because sufficient tolling of the ten-year lookback due to defendant’s incarceration was not demonstrated. The appellate division did not limit its remittal. Therefore, on remittal the sentencing court properly relied upon additional information about defendant’s incarceration which tolled the ten-year lookback and sentenced defendant again as a persistent felony offender.