Case ID: ad2d_40/html/0983-02.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

The People of the State of New York, Respondent, v. James Leonard Christian, Appellant.
   Appeal by defendant from two judgments of the Supreme Court, Queens County, both rendered March 19, 1971, on Indictment Nos. 1828/70 and 778/71, respectively, each convicting him of criminally selling a dangerous drug in the third degree, upon a plea of guilty, and imposing an indeterminate term of imprisonment of a maximum of five years, with the sentences to- run concurrently. Judgment on Indictment No. 778/71 affirmed. No opinion. Judgment on Indictment No. 1828/70 modified, on the law, by reducing the maximum term of imprisonment thereunder to four years; and this sentence shall continue to run concurrently with the sentence on Indictment No. 778/71. Defendant’s plea of guilty on Indictment No. 778/71 was to a class C felony. There was no mistake with respect thereto. A class C felony carries a permissible maximum of 15 years. Defendant was given a maximum sentence of five years. On Indictment No. 1828/70 defendant’s guilty plea was accepted as one to “ a class E felony ”, which has a permissible maximum of four years. The sentencing court was therefore in error when it imposed a sentence with a maximum of five .years on that indictment. Rabin, P. J., Munder, Martuscello, Latham and Shapiro, JJ., concur.