State of New York

Supreme Court, Appellate Division

Third Judicial Department

Decided and Entered: April 28, 2016 104495 

106452

________________________________

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF

NEW YORK,

Respondent,

v MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

THOMAS LEWIS,

Appellant.

________________________________

Calendar Date: March 22, 2016

Before: Lahtinen, J.P., McCarthy, Garry, Rose and Mulvey, JJ.

__________

James E. Long, Public Defender, Albany (Theresa M. Suozzi

of counsel), for appellant, and appellant pro se.

P. David Soares, District Attorney, Albany (Steven M. Sharp

of counsel), for respondent.

__________

Lahtinen, J.P.

Appeals (1) from a judgment of the County Court of Albany

County (Breslin, J.), rendered May 13, 2010, convicting defendant

upon his plea of guilty of the crime of assault in the first

degree, and (2) by permission, from an order of the Supreme Court

(Breslin, J.), entered January 30, 2014 in Albany County, which

denied defendant's motion pursuant to CPL 440.10 to vacate the

judgment of conviction, without a hearing.

Defendant pleaded guilty to assault in the first degree in

satisfaction of three counts charged in an indictment stemming

from his participation in the kidnapping and vicious beating of a

young woman in May 2009. Consistent with the plea agreement that
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also contemplated a waiver of appeal, defendant was sentenced as

a second felony offender to a prison term of 22 years to be

followed by five years of postrelease supervision.1 Defendant's

subsequent pro se motion to vacate the judgment was denied in a

written decision, without a hearing. Defendant now appeals from

the judgment of conviction and, with permission, from the order

denying his motion to vacate. 

Initially, although an appeal waiver was recited as a term

of the plea agreement, a review of the record does not establish

that defendant's appeal waiver was knowing, voluntary and

intelligent (see People v Lopez, 6 NY3d 248, 256 [2006]). There

was no written appeal waiver and, when County Court elicited an

oral waiver from defendant, it did not explain its meaning or

ascertain that he had specifically discussed the waiver or the

appellate process with counsel (see People v Proper, 133 AD3d

918, 919 [2015]; People v Ashlaw, 126 AD3d 1236, 1237 [2015]). 

As the court's brief inquiry was insufficient "to ensure that

defendant grasped the minimal information pertaining to the

appeal waiver" (People v Bradshaw, 18 NY3d 257, 260 [2011];

accord People v Anderson, 129 AD3d 1385, 1385 [2015], lv denied

26 NY3d 965 [2015]), it is not enforceable. Nonetheless,

defendant's challenge to his guilty plea as involuntary was not

raised in an appropriate postallocution motion to withdraw his

plea (see CPL 220.60 [3]), so it is unpreserved for our review on

his direct appeal (see People v Atkinson, 124 AD3d 1149, 1150

[2015], lv denied 25 NY3d 949 [2015]). Defendant made no

statements during the allocution that negated an essential

element of the crime or cast doubt on his guilt so as to trigger

the narrow exception to the preservation rule (see People v

Lopez, 71 NY2d 662, 665 [1988]; People v Burritt, 127 AD3d 1433,

1434 [2015]). In any event, contrary to his claim, a factual

recitation was not required and his unequivocal responses to the

court's detailed questions were sufficient to establish his guilt

(see People v Rouse, 119 AD3d 1161, 1163 [2014]). 

1 The conviction of another participant in this crime was

affirmed by this Court (People v White, 104 AD3d 1056 [2013], lvs

denied 21 NY3d 1018, 1021 [2013]).
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With regard to defendant's remaining claims, including

those raised in his pro se briefs, we have reviewed them and find

that none has merit. His challenge to the count of the

indictment to which he pleaded guilty as duplicitous is not

preserved for our review (see People v Allen, 24 NY3d 441, 449-

450 [2014])2 and, in any event, it was waived by his guilty plea

(see People v Jackson, 129 AD3d 1342, 1342-1343 [2015]; People v

Vega, 268 AD2d 686, 687 [2000], lv denied 95 NY3d 839 [2000]). 

We have previously rejected the claim that Albany County did not

have geographic jurisdiction over this assault (see People v

White, 104 AD3d 1056, 1057 [2013], lvs denied 21 NY3d 1018, 1021

[2013]; CPL 20.40 [1]), and his argument regarding the

sufficiency of the evidence presented to the grand jury is also

precluded by his guilty plea (see People v Hansen, 95 NY2d 227,

231-232 [2000]; People v Howard, 119 AD3d 1090, 1091 [2014], lv

denied 24 NY3d 961 [2014]).3 While defendant may challenge the

agreed-upon sentence as harsh and excessive given the invalid

appeal waiver (see People v Lopez, 6 NY3d at 256), it is devoid

of merit in view of the unspeakable brutality of his crime (see

People v White, 104 AD3d at 1057), committed while he was on

parole for a manslaughter conviction. 

We next turn to the denial of defendant's motion to vacate

the judgment of conviction, which is supported solely by

defendant's own affidavit. The motion was premised primarily

upon the assertion that he was deprived of the effective

assistance of counsel due to her failure to make pretrial motions

2 Defendant's omnibus motion seeking dismissal of the

indictment (see CPL 210.20) did not raise duplicity (see CPL

200.30), and County Court's decision thereon did not address it.

3 Appellate counsel also raises the duplicity and

sufficiency of grand jury evidence claims on the appeal from the

denial of defendant's motion to vacate. For the reasons stated,

these claims are precluded by defendant's valid guilty plea. 

Moreover, claims such as these that can be raised on direct

appeal are foreclosed for review in a CPL 440.10 motion (see CPL

440.10 [2] [c]; People v Hillriegel, 78 AD3d 1381, 1382 [2010]).
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and to move to dismiss the indictment on various grounds. 

However, the "[f]ailure to request a suppression hearing or to

make a pretrial motion does not, by itself, constitute

ineffective assistance, particularly in the absence of any basis

upon which to conclude that a defendant had a colorable claim or

that counsel's actions were not premised upon a legitimate

strategy" (People v Vonneida, 130 AD3d 1322, 1322-1323 [2015], lv

denied 26 NY3d 1093 [2015]; see People v Caban, 5 NY3d 143, 152

[2005]; People v Rivera, 71 NY2d 705, 709 [1998]; People v

Cooper, 126 AD3d 1046, 1047-1048 [2015], lv denied 26 NY3d 966

[2015]). Moreover, as part of the plea, defendant expressly

waived the right to pretrial hearings and withdrew his pending

motions, and his guilty plea prior to any suppression decisions

forfeited those issues (see People v Fernandez, 67 NY2d 686, 688

[1986]). As the record reflects that counsel filed appropriate

challenges to the indictment and to potential evidence and

secured a favorable plea deal, and nothing in the record casts

doubt on counsel's apparent effectiveness, we find no support for

his claim that he was deprived of meaningful representation (see

People v Caban, 5 NY3d at 152; People v Cooper, 126 AD3d at

1048). Given that defendant has failed to "demonstrate the

absence of strategic or other legitimate explanations for

counsel's alleged failure[s]" (People v Wragg, 26 NY3d 403, 409

[2015]) and his self-serving claims are contradicted by the

record or unsupported by any other evidence, Supreme Court

properly denied his motion to vacate without a hearing (see CPL

440.30 [4] [d]; People v Satterfield, 66 NY2d 796, 798-799

[1985]; People v Brandon, 133 AD3d 901, 903-904 [2015]).

McCarthy, Garry, Rose and Mulvey, JJ., concur.
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ORDERED that the judgment and order are affirmed.

ENTER:

Robert D. Mayberger

Clerk of the Court