Opinion ID: 177345
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Vance Morris

Text: Morris was convicted following a jury trial of sixteen counts of criminal contempt in the first degree, a class E felony. See N.Y. Penal Law § 215.51(b). Four final orders of protection had previously been issued against Morris when the police were called to his ex-girlfriend's apartment on July 18, 2001. The woman informed the officers that Morris had come to her residence in violation of the orders of protection, repeatedly banged on her door, and threatened her. While the officers were still present, Morris twice called the apartment and left messages, each time threatening to kill the woman. Following Morris's conviction, the State moved to sentence him as a persistent felony offender. At sentencing hearings held in April and July of 2002, Morris conceded various prior felony convictions, including: (1) a 1989 conviction for attempted robbery in the third degree; (2) a 1992 conviction for grand larceny in the fourth degree; (3) a 1992 conviction for attempted criminal possession of a controlled substance in the fifth degree; and (4) a 1994 conviction for robbery in the third degree. The court therefore concluded that Morris qualified as a persistent felony offender under Section 70.10. Next, at step two, the court evaluated whether or not Morris should be sentenced as a PFO. The sentencing judge described the defendant's long history of terrorizing his ex-girlfriend, as well as several of her neighbors, who on several occasions felt it necessary to call the police for fear that he's going to kill us all. In addition, while Morris was incarcerated at Riker's Island during the pendency of the case, he called his ex-girlfriend on thirtytwo separate occasions in violation of the orders of protection. The court considered the defendant's other criminal history of violence toward women, which include numerous incidents in the subway, inter alia: firing a projectile in the face of a female passenger in 1986, twice snatching pairs of earrings from the ears of female passengers, slapping a [visibly] pregnant female in the face and snatching necklaces from her neck, twice engaging in public masturbation in the subway station in front of female witnesses and grabbing the buttocks of a female rider while threatening a sexual assault on her. The court concluded that Morris's criminal record, which spans nearly two decades, establishes his propensity to prey upon helpless women generally, and upon [the ex-girlfriend] in particular. It also serves to demonstrate his utter lack of self control and inability to be rehabilitated. Morris was sentenced to sixteen indeterminate terms of fifteen years to life in prison, to be served concurrently. If Morris had not been sentenced as a PFO, he would have faced a determinate sentence of between one and one half years and four years on each of the sixteen counts. See N.Y. Penal Law § 70.06(3)-(4). On direct appeal, Morris asserted an Apprendi challenge to his sentence. The Appellate Division rejected that argument as unpreserved, as well as on its merits. See People v. Morris, 21 A.D.3d 251, 251, 800 N.Y.S.2d 6, 7 (1st Dep't 2005). The New York Court of Appeals denied leave to appeal on September 27, 2005, People v. Morris, 5 N.Y.3d 831, 831, 804 N.Y.S.2d 45, 837 N.E.2d 744 (2005), and Morris submitted a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in federal court. On July 30, 2007, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York denied that petition. Morris, 2007 WL 2200699, at . Morris brought this appeal.