People v Lewis

People v Lewis 2008 NY Slip Op 02765 [49 AD3d 474] March 27, 2008 Appellate Division, First Department Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431. As corrected through Wednesday, May 14, 2008

The People of the State of New York, Respondent,
v
Zachary Lewis, Also Known as Scotty Brown, Appellant.

—[*1] Steven Banks, The Legal Aid Society, New York City (Karen M. Kalikow of counsel), for appellant.

Robert M. Morgenthau, District Attorney, New York (Alan Gadlin of counsel), for respondent.

Judgments, Supreme Court, New York County (Carol Berkman, J.), rendered June 2, 2005, convicting defendant, upon his pleas of guilty, of murder in the second degree and criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree, and sentencing him to an aggregate term of 20 years to life, unanimously affirmed.

Defendant made valid written and oral waivers of his right to appeal (see People v Ramos, 7 NY3d 737 [2006]; People v Lopez, 6 NY3d 248 [2006]), which foreclose his suppression claims. In a thorough colloquy, the court carefully explained to defendant that the right to appeal was separate from the rights automatically forfeited by pleading guilty, and that, in consideration of the plea, defendant was giving up his right to appellate review of the court's suppression ruling. To the extent that defendant is arguing that this Court should entertain his suppression arguments regardless of the waiver, that argument is without merit (see People v Holman, 89 NY2d 876 [1996]). As an alternative holding, we also reject defendant's suppression claims on the merits. Concur—Mazzarelli, J.P., Saxe, Buckley and Catterson, JJ.