From Casetext: Smarter Legal Research

People v. Bustamante

Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, Third Department
May 28, 2009
62 A.D.3d 1209 (N.Y. App. Div. 2009)

Opinion

No. 101544.

May 28, 2009.

Appeal from an order of the County Court of Columbia County (Nichols, J.), entered December 13, 2007, which denied defendant's motion for resentencing pursuant to the Drug Law Reform Act of 2005.

Carl J. Silverstein, Monticello, for appellant.

Beth G. Cozzolino, District Attorney, Hudson (H. Neal Conolly of counsel), for respondent.

Before: Mercure, J.P., Spain, Kavanagh and McCarthy, JJ., concur.


In 1991, defendant was convicted of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the second degree — a class A-II nonviolent felony — and was sentenced to a prison term of four years to life. He was released to parole supervision in 1995 but thereafter incarcerated — most recently in 2007 — on three separate occasions for violations of parole. On this appeal, defendant asserts that County Court improperly denied his application for resentencing pursuant to the Drug Law Reform Act of 2005 (L 2005, ch 643, § 1 [hereinafter 2005 DLRA]) without a hearing.

"[O]nce a defendant has been released to parole supervision for a class A-II drug felony conviction, he or she no longer qualifies for 2005 DLRA relief for that particular conviction" ( People v Mills, 11 NY3d 527, 537; People v McCloud, 38 AD3d 1056, 1057, lv dismissed 8 NY3d 947). Inasmuch as defendant was clearly ineligible, as a matter of law, for resentencing pursuant to the 2005 DLRA, County Court's denial of his application without a hearing was proper ( see People v Salvatierra, 51 AD3d 1218, 1219, lv dismissed 10 NY3d 964). Defendant's remaining arguments have been reviewed and are without merit.

Ordered that the order is affirmed.


Summaries of

People v. Bustamante

Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, Third Department
May 28, 2009
62 A.D.3d 1209 (N.Y. App. Div. 2009)
Case details for

People v. Bustamante

Case Details

Full title:THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, Respondent, v. JOAQUIN BUSTAMANTE…

Court:Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, Third Department

Date published: May 28, 2009

Citations

62 A.D.3d 1209 (N.Y. App. Div. 2009)
2009 N.Y. Slip Op. 4130
878 N.Y.S.2d 921

Citing Cases

People v. Figueroa

Rather, the Court held that its construction of the statute was the most sensible one because it concluded…

People v. Chatham

with respect to his initial conviction (and, in fact, had been released on parole), he could not be…