The Appellate Division, Third Department has today unanimously affirmed the April, 2014 conviction of Ronald S. Grumberg upon his plea of guilty of the crimes of criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree and grand larceny in the third degree.
Defendant’s conviction stems from an investigation conducted by the Ulster County Sheriff’s Office in early 2013. At that time, Sheriffs deputies discovered that defendant was engaged in fraudulent motor vehicle transactions, and was also selling firearms and ammunition. During the execution of a search warrant at defendant’s residence in March, 2013, police recovered, among other things, various types of guns and semi-automatic weapons, as well as almost $2,000 in cash.
Defendant was subsequently charged in multiple indictments with criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree and multiple counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the third and fourth degrees, grand larceny in the third degree and fourth degree and scheme to defraud in the first degree. The defendant pled guilty to criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree and grand larceny in the third degree and waived his right to appeal. The defendant was subsequently sentenced by County Court Judge Donald A. Williams to two years in State prison followed by three years of postrelease supervision on his conviction for criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree and a consecutive two to six year sentence on his grand larceny in the third degree conviction, and was ordered to pay $200,000 in restitution.
On appeal, defendant asserted that his guilty plea was not knowingly, voluntarily and intelligently entered because he was misinformed about the sentence he would receive and that the 11 month delay between the initial indictment and his guilty plea violated his constitutional right to a speedy trial. Defendant also challenged the $200,000 restitution award on his grand larceny conviction and the Court’s imposition of a 10% surcharge.
While the Appellate Division concluded that defendant’s first two claims were not preserved for appellate review and lacking in merit, it modified the 10% collection surcharge to 5%, but otherwise upheld the restitution award.
On appeal, the defendant is represented by Theodore J. Stein, Esq. of Woodstock, New York. Assistant District Attorney Joan Gudesblatt Lamb, Esq. handled the appeal for the District Attorney’s Office.
