PRESS RELEASE
FROM: HOLLEY CARNRIGHT, DISTRICT ATTORNEY
DATE: OCTOBER 5, 2017
The Appellate Division, Third Department has today unanimously affirmed the July 30, 2015 conviction of Ruben Rodriguez upon his plea of guilty of the crime of burglary in the first degree, a class B violent felony.
Defendant’s conviction stems from a break in which he perpetrated on September 22, 2014 in an apartment in Clintondale, New York. When the homeowner received an alert on his iPhone that there was movement inside his residence, he returned to his apartment immediately. When he knocked on the door, he was confronted by the defendant and another intruder. As the two men fled from the scene towards the getaway car, defendant fired a gun which struck a vehicle owned by the victim’s next door neighbor.
Defendant pled guilty to burglary in the first degree, the top count of the indictment, and waived his right to appeal. In accordance with the terms of the plea agreement, County Court Judge Donald A. Williams sentenced defendant, a second felony offender, to 16 years in State prison followed by five years of postrelease supervision.
On appeal, the defendant challenged the factual sufficiency of his plea allocution, but the Court found that it was unpreserved for review, and found that the defendant admitted during the plea colloquy that he unlawfully entered a building and possessed a loaded gun at the time.
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.