People v. Monk

989 N.E.2d 1, 21 N.Y.3d 27
CourtNew York Court of Appeals
DecidedApril 30, 2013
StatusPublished
Cited by30 cases

This text of 989 N.E.2d 1 (People v. Monk) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Monk, 989 N.E.2d 1, 21 N.Y.3d 27 (N.Y. 2013).

Opinions

OPINION OF THE COURT

Read, J.

By indictment filed in Westchester County on June 17, 2004, defendant Terrance Monk was charged with first-degree robbery (Penal Law § 160.15 [3] [the robber “(u)ses or threatens the immediate use of a dangerous instrument”]), second-degree robbery (two counts) (Penal Law § 160.10), and second- and third-degree assault (Penal Law §§ 120.05, 120.00, respectively) in connection with an attack on a woman whom defendant and at least one accomplice were alleged to have followed into the driveway of her residence in Westchester County in the late evening hours of March 21, 2004. As the victim recounted what happened, defendant smashed the passenger side window of her car with a Belgian block thrown with such force that she suffered a broken rib and a bruised right arm; reached through the shattered glass and punched her in the back; and threatened to kill her if she did not get out of the car and go into her home, and to cut off her finger with a knife that he wielded if she refused to give him her ring. Defendant was accused of stealing the victim’s purse, cell phone, car keys, and ring before fleeing with an accomplice, leaving her cowering inside her car.

During plea negotiations, the assistant district attorney, at defense counsel’s behest, approached her counterparts in Rock-land County to seek agreement that the 10-year sentence then under discussion would run concurrently with whatever sentence was imposed on defendant to resolve charges pending against him for thefts in Rockland County, to which he [30]*30anticipated soon pleading guilty. At a hearing on April 15, 2005, the assistant district attorney informed County Court that after “several phone calls to try and accommodate the defendant and his attorney on that,” she had secured the Rockland County district attorney’s commitment not to oppose concurrent sentencing. Defendant then agreed to plead guilty to attempted first-degree robbery (Penal Law §§ 110.00, 160.15 [3]), a class C violent felony, in full satisfaction of the indictment in Westchester County.

The judge put the sentence promise on the record before accepting defendant’s plea, advising him that the “[s]entence promise is a ten-year determinate] sentence^] concurrent with the sentence you’re going to receive in Rockland County[,] with a mandatory five-year post-release supervision period.” During the plea allocution, defendant acknowledged that on April 24, 1997, he had pleaded guilty to second-degree burglary (Penal Law § 140.25), a class C violent felony, for which he was sentenced to an indeterminate term of 3 to 6 years in prison, and, as a result, would be sentenced as a second violent felony offender; and that his guilty plea stood on its own, independent of any other conviction, including the disposition of the Rock-land County case.

At a court appearance on May 10, 2005, defense counsel (who was, in fact, defendant’s second attorney, The Legal Aid Society having previously successfully asked to be relieved), sought to be excused from representing defendant on the ground of irreconcilable differences. Additionally, she informed the judge that defendant, although not then speaking to her, had earlier “communicated a desire ... to withdraw his plea.” County Court granted the attorney’s application, and subsequently appointed new defense counsel.

By motion dated June 24, 2005, defendant, through his new attorney, moved to withdraw his guilty plea, alleging multiple grounds for doing so. As relevant to this appeal, he claimed that the sentence promise was deficient because the judge “did not explain to [him] at the time of the plea that a violation of the post release supervision could result in his being incarcerated for up to five additional years of imprisonment, over and above the ten years promised by the Court.”

In a decision and order dated August 17, 2005, County Court denied the motion. The judge noted that defendant “was informed that he was subject to a period of [five] years of post [31]*31release supervision.” Further, because the “consequences of . . . violation of post release supervision are collateral to a defendant’s plea,” he was not required to describe them. At the sentencing proceeding that same day, defendant, who refused to answer the judge’s questions regarding his 1997 conviction, was adjudicated a second violent felony offender. County Court then sentenced him as agreed to, absent the “benefit of a promised concurrent sentence” since there was no plea agreement in Rockland County.

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Bluebook (online)
989 N.E.2d 1, 21 N.Y.3d 27, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-monk-ny-2013.