PEOPLE v. SMITH (2025)

Judgment, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Ralph A. Fabrizio, J.), rendered June 22, 2022, convicting defendant, upon his guilty plea, of attempted criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree, and sentencing him, as a second violent felony offender, to a term of five years, unanimously affirmed.

Defendant's arguments that his guilty plea was invalid are unpreserved because he failed to move to withdraw his plea (see People v. Wray, 44 A.D.3d 551, 843 N.Y.S.2d 630 [1st Dept. 2007], lv denied 10 N.Y.3d 773, 854 N.Y.S.2d 334, 883 N.E.2d 1269 [2008]).  Nor did defendant contemporaneously object to the court's rulings that he challenges now.  We decline to review these claims in the interest of justice.

As alternative holdings, we find that the court providently exercised its discretion in determining that there would be no further plea negotiations after commencement of the pretrial hearing (cf.  People v. Compton, 157 A.D.2d 903, 903, 550 N.Y.S.2d 148 [3d Dept. 1990], lv denied 75 N.Y.2d 918, 555 N.Y.S.2d 36, 554 N.E.2d 73 [1990]).  The court's refusal to grant defendant a one-day adjournment to consider a plea to the minimum sentence for a violent felony, which had been available to defendant for approximately a month, did not constitute coercion to plead guilty (see People v. White, 32 N.Y.2d 393, 400, 345 N.Y.S.2d 513, 298 N.E.2d 659 [1973]).

The indictment was not jurisdictionally defective for omitting the material element of operability.  Although the text of Penal Law § 265.03(3) is silent regarding operability, it is well established that by citing the name of the statute, the People alleged all of the statutory elements, even those that are the product of a “judicial gloss” (see People v. Daniels, 224 A.D.3d 554, 203 N.Y.S.3d 600 [1st Dept. 2024], lv denied 41 N.Y.3d 982, 210 N.Y.S.3d 749, 234 N.E.3d 365 [2024];  People v. Luis R., 220 A.D.3d 549, 549–550, 198 N.Y.S.3d 33 [1st Dept. 2023], lv denied 42 N.Y.3d 1080, 227 N.Y.S.3d 566, 252 N.E.3d 505 [2025]).