PEOPLE v. FIGUEROA (2025)

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Ruth Pickholz, J.), rendered December 3, 2015, as amended January 29, 2016, convicting defendant, upon his plea of guilty, of sexual abuse in the first degree, and sentencing him, as a predicate sex offender with a prior violent felony offense, to a term of five years followed by 10 years of postrelease supervision, unanimously affirmed.

Defendant's claim that the court's discussion of his rights under (Boykin v. Alabama, 395 U.S. 238, 89 S.Ct. 1709, 23 L.Ed.2d 274 [1969]) was deficient is unpreserved, and does not fall within the narrow exception to the preservation requirement (see People v. Conceicao, 26 N.Y.3d 375, 381, 23 N.Y.S.3d 124, 44 N.E.3d 199 [2015]).  We decline to review his claim in the interest of justice.  As an alternative holding, we find that the record as a whole establishes that the plea was knowingly, intelligently, and voluntarily made, notwithstanding any deficiencies in the plea colloquy, including the lack of reference to the right against self-incrimination (see People v. Velez, 138 A.D.3d 418, 27 N.Y.S.3d 868 [1st Dept. 2016], lv denied 27 N.Y.3d 1140, 39 N.Y.S.3d 122, 61 N.E.3d 521 [2016]).  Moreover, a court's omission of the word “jury” in discussing a defendant's right to a trial does not, by itself, vitiate the validity of a guilty plea (see e.g. People v. Ayala, 156 A.D.3d 547, 65 N.Y.S.3d 693 [1st Dept. 2017]).

We perceive no basis for reducing the sentence.