THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, Respondent, v EDWARD WRIGHT, Appellant.
Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, Third Department
2017
60 NYS3d 860
Defendant pleaded guilty to the crime of burglary in the first degree in full satisfaction of a nine-count indictment and waived the right to appeal. County Court thereafter sentenced defendant, as a second felony offender, to the agreed-upon sentence of 17½ years in prison, to be followed by five years of postrelease supervision and ordered him to pay restitution in the amount of $625.45, plus a 10% surcharge. Defendant now appeals.
Defendant further contends that he did not voluntarily enter into the agreement because County Court did not advise him, prior to his plea, about a potential intoxication defense. While a challenge to the voluntariness of a plea must generally be preserved by an appropriate postallocution motion, preservation was not required here because “there [was] no practical opportunity to do so prior to sentencing” (People v Rebelo, 137 AD3d 1315, 1316 [2016], lv denied 28 NY3d 936 [2016], cert denied 580 US —, 137 S Ct 385 [2016]; see People v Conceicao, 26 NY3d 375, 381-382 [2015]; People v Sougou, 26 NY3d 1052, 1054 [2015]). The record reflects, however, that defendant made no statements during the plea allocution that would have obligated County Court to inquire into a potential intoxication defense prior to accepting his plea (see People v Lopez, 71 NY2d 662, 666 [1988]; People v Maxson, 101 AD3d 1384, 1385-1386 [2012]). Although the pre-plea investigation report indicates that defendant stated to police investigators that he was under the influence of crack cocaine on the day of the crime, his responses during the plea colloquy established that he knowingly entered the victim‘s home with the intent to commit a crime and, while in the dwelling, he caused physical injuries to the victim (see
