People v. Rodriguez

2025 NY Slip Op 06970

• Court: Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
• Decided: December 16, 2025
• Docket: SCI No. 70239/24; Appeal No. 5378; Case No. 2024-00991
• Status: Published

Opinion

People v Rodriguez (2025 NY Slip Op 06970)

People v Rodriguez

2025 NY Slip Op 06970

Decided on December 16, 2025

Appellate Division, First Department

Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431.

This opinion is uncorrected and subject to revision before publication in the Official Reports.

Decided and Entered: December 16, 2025
Before: Moulton, J.P., Kennedy, Mendez, Michael, Chan, JJ.

SCI No. 70239/24|Appeal No. 5378|Case No. 2024-00991|

[*1]The People of the State of New York, Respondent,

v

Elliot Rodriguez, Defendant-Appellant.

Jenay Nurse Guilford, Center for Appellate Litigation, New York (Shaina R. Watrous of counsel), for appellant.

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Jonathan Svetkey, J., at plea; Laurie Peterson, J., at sentencing), rendered January 26, 2024, purporting to convict defendant of two counts of attempted criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree, and sentencing him, as a second felony drug offender, to concurrent jail terms of one year, unanimously modified, to the extent of vacating the sentence imposed on the second count, and otherwise affirmed.

The sentencing court, erroneously believing that defendant pled guilty to two counts, sentenced him to two concurrent one-year sentences. However, defendant only pled guilty to one attempted third-degree sale count, and thus was only convicted of one count. Accordingly, as the People concede, there was no legal basis for his second, concurrent sentence (see CPL 1.20[13], [14]).

THIS CONSTITUTES THE DECISION AND ORDER OF THE SUPREME COURT, APPELLATE DIVISION, FIRST DEPARTMENT.

ENTERED: December 16, 2025