PEOPLE v. AIKEN (2025)

DECISION & ORDER

Appeal by the defendant from a judgment of the Supreme Court, Queens County (Michael Aloise, J.), rendered May 10, 2023, convicting him of manslaughter in the first degree, upon his plea of guilty, and imposing sentence.

ORDERED that the judgment is modified, on the law and as a matter of discretion in the interest of justice, by vacating the imposition of a mandatory surcharge and fees;  as so modified, the judgment is affirmed.

In 2020, when the defendant was 18 years old, he was involved in multiple gang-related shootings, one of which fatally wounded an innocent bystander.  The defendant entered a plea of guilty to manslaughter in the first degree, and was sentenced to a determinate term of imprisonment of 19 years, to be followed by 5 years of postrelease supervision.  The defendant was also assessed a mandatory surcharge and fees.

The sentence imposed was not excessive (see People v. Suitte, 90 A.D.2d 80, 455 N.Y.S.2d 675).

However, pursuant to the exercise of our interest of justice jurisdiction, we modify the judgment by vacating the mandatory surcharge and fees imposed upon the defendant at sentencing (see CPL 420.35[2–a];  People v. Jean–Jacques, 236 A.D.3d 1055, 1058, 230 N.Y.S.3d 388).

BRATHWAITE NELSON, J.P., FORD, TAYLOR and MCCORMACK, JJ., concur.