PEOPLE v. BATTISTE (2023)

Order, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Efrain Alvarado, J.), entered on or about July 13, 2017, which adjudicated defendant a level three sexually violent offender pursuant to the Sex Offender Registration Act (Correction Law art 6–C), unanimously affirmed, without costs.

The court properly exercised its discretion when it declined to grant a downward departure (see People v. Gillotti, 23 N.Y.3d 841, 994 N.Y.S.2d 1, 18 N.E.3d 701 [2014]).  Within a short period of time, defendant raped four women who were strangers to him and murdered a 15–year–old girl during an attempted rape.  Although these crimes occurred many years ago, and defendant demonstrated outstanding academic achievement while in prison, the mitigating factors cited by defendant are outweighed by the unusual egregiousness of these repeated crimes, which demonstrates a risk that reoffense would cause serious harm (see People v. Roldan, 140 A.D.3d 411, 30 N.Y.S.3d 871 [1st Dept. 2016], lv denied 28 N.Y.3d 904, 2016 WL 5001245 [2016]).  Furthermore, defendant was incarcerated for almost the entire time between his commission of these crimes and his sex offender classification proceeding, and the brief time defendant spent in the community provided little information about his risk of reoffense.  Additionally, defendant has not shown that his particular risk of reoffense was mitigated by his age (see People v. Rodriguez, 145 A.D.3d 489, 490, 44 N.Y.S.3d 16 [1st Dept. 2016], lv denied 28 N.Y.3d 916, 2017 WL 628943 [2017]).