Court Opinion

ID: 5995063
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2022-01-13 09:23:24.491406+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:50:02.631528
License: Public Domain

—Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (David Stadtmauer, J.), rendered December 18, 1992, convicting defendant, upon his plea of guilty, of murder in the second degree, and sentencing him to a term of 15 years to life, unanimously affirmed.
Defendant’s claim that his allocution was insufficient because the court failed to inquire about a possible justification defense *275is unpreserved for appellate review as a matter of law, defendant having neither moved to withdraw the plea before sentencing on that ground nor moved to vacate the judgment of conviction (People v Claudio, 64 NY2d 858). Defendant also failed to preserve his claim that the court should have inquired about such a defense in deciding the motion to withdraw the plea (CPL 470.05 [2]). The narrow exception to the preservation rule described in People v Lopez (71 NY2d 662, 666) does not apply, since in neither his allocution nor his motion to withdraw the plea did defendant indicate that he strangled the victim in self-defense or otherwise cast " 'significant doubt’ ” on the validity of the plea (People v Toxey, 86 NY2d 725, 726). Concur—Rosenberger, J. P., Rubin, Kupferman, Asch and Williams, JJ.