PRESS RELEASE
FROM: HOLLEY CARNRIGHT, DISTRICT ATTORNEY
DATE: JUNE 1, 2017
The Appellate Division, Third Department has today unanimously affirmed the October 14, 2014 conviction of Collin Lambert upon his plea of guilty convicting him of two counts of the crime of robbery in the third degree.
In September, 2014, the defendant waived indictment and pled guilty to two counts of robbery in the third degree as charged in a superior court information. During the plea proceedings, defendant admitted that he committed two separate armed bank robberies, the Key Bank in the Village of Saugerties and the Chase Bank in the Village of New Paltz. As part of the negotiated plea agreement, defendant was required to waive his right to appeal.
Pursuant to the terms of a plea agreement, defendant, a second felony offender, was sentenced to consecutive indeterminate terms of imprisonment of three to six years and ordered to pay restitution.
On appeal, the defendant claimed that his waiver of appeal was invalid and that the consecutive sentences imposed by County Court were unduly harsh and severe. The Appellate Division, Third Department, however, found that defendant’s waiver of appeal was knowing, voluntary and intelligent and given that his waiver was valid he was precluded from challenging his sentence.
On appeal, the defendant is represented by G. Scott Walling, Esq. of Schenectady, New York. Assistant District Attorney Joan Gudesblatt Lamb, Esq. handled the appeal for the District Attorney’s Office.