PRESS RELEASE
FROM: HOLLEY CARNRIGHT, DISTRICT ATTORNEY
DATE: DECEMBER 15, 2017
The Appellate Division, Third Department has unanimously affirmed the July, 2015 conviction of Ian Stewart upon his plea of guilty of the crime of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the fifth degree.
In April, 2015, the defendant, who knowingly and unlawfully possessed a quantity of cocaine which weighed 500 milligrams or more, waived indictment and entered a guilty plea to criminal possession of a controlled substance in the fifth degree in exchange for the agreed upon sentence of three years in State prison to be followed by three years of postrelease supervision. At that time, the defendant also waived his right to appeal. On July 1, 2015, the defendant, a second felony offender, was sentenced by County Court Judge Donald A. Williams to the agreed upon term of three years in prison followed by three years of postrelease supervision.
Although the defendant pled guilty to an agreed upon disposition and waived his right to appeal, he appealed claiming that he was improperly sentenced as a second felony offender because the Court failed to advise him that he could controvert the allegations contained in the prior felony information. The Appellate Division, Third Department, however, concluded that this claim was unpreserved for review in light of defendant’s failure to object at sentencing and regardless, the Court had substantially complied with the requirements of CPL §400.21(3), which governs the procedure to be followed.
Since the defendant is indigent the taxpayers of Ulster County paid for a public defender, Michael Gould, to file this appeal. They also paid to have the appeal defended by Assistant District Attorney Joan Lamb. They paid to have the appeals brief and the opposition brief printed and, of course, they are helping to pay the salaries of the judges, clerks, and other personnel in the Appellate Division.
The defendant, age 36, has two felony convictions and four misdemeanor convictions and multiple bench warrants on his record.