Appeal, by permission, from an order of the County Court of Washington County (Berke, J.), entered October 18, 2000, which, inter alia, denied defendant’s motion pursuant to CPL 440.10 to vacate the judgment convicting him of the crimes of attempted murder in the second degree, rape in the first degree, sodomy in the first degree (two counts), assault in the first degree and assault in the second degree, after a hearing.
In August 1989, defendant was convicted, following a jury trial, of each of the aforementioned crimes and was sentenced, as a second felony offender, to consecutive terms of imprisonment resulting in an aggregate sentence of 25 to 50 years. His appeal to this Court was unsuccessful (
In May 1999, defendant moved for an order vacating the judgment of conviction pursuant to CPL 440.10 and for an order setting aside the sentence pursuant to CPL 440.20. County Court denied the motion without a hearing and defendant successfully challenged the denial (
“So long as the evidence, the law, and the circumstances of a particular case, viewed in totality and as of the time of the representation, reveal that the attorney provided meaningful representation, the constitutional requirement will have been met” (People v Baldi,
Defendant’s assertion of his counsel’s ineffectiveness is grounded primarily upon two inadequacies: (1) counsel’s mistaken advice in assuring defendant that he would be sentenced concurrently were he convicted of the crimes charged, and (2) counsel’s failure to contest defendant’s status as a second felony offender. As revealed at the hearing upon remittal, defense counsel’s failure to challenge a prior conviction for a sex offense in Vermont resulted in defendant’s
For these reasons, we reverse that portion of County Court’s order which denied defendant’s motion to vacate the judgment of conviction and remit for a new trial.
Cardona, P. J., Mercure, Crew III and Lahtinen, JJ., concur. Ordered that the order is reversed, on the law, motion pursuant to CPL 440.10 granted, judgment of conviction vacated and matter remitted to the County Court of Washington County for a new trial.
Notes
We decline counsel’s invitation to follow Borla v Keane (
