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People v. Clavijo

Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, Third Department
Jan 29, 1987
126 A.D.2d 907 (N.Y. App. Div. 1987)

Opinion

January 29, 1987

Appeal from the County Court of Albany County (Harris, J.).


Defendant entered a plea of guilty to the crimes of burglary in the first degree, rape in the first degree and sodomy in the first degree in satisfaction of the eight felonies charged in the indictment. On appeal, defendant contends that County Court abused its discretion in refusing to allow him to withdraw his guilty plea at the time of sentencing, improperly denied his motion to suppress the identifications made by the two female victims of his criminal activity, and erred in denying defendant's severance motion. We disagree. There should be an affirmance.

There is no merit in any of the arguments defendant makes to support his contention that County Court abused its discretion in refusing to allow him to withdraw his plea of guilty (see, People v. Tinsley, 35 N.Y.2d 926, 927; People v. Kelsch, 96 A.D.2d 677, 678; People v. Gibson, 84 A.D.2d 885, 886). The plea was well taken and there was no adequate reason advanced which would warrant such withdrawal.

Defendant's attack on the admissibility of identification testimony was based on a claim that the composition of the photo array caused it to be unnecessarily suggestive. There was some conflict in the testimony of the witnesses as to the number of pictures in the array but "the suppression court [is] entitled to make a determination concerning the credibility of the witnesses appearing before it, and [an appellate court should] not disturb that determination on appeal" (People v. Valo, 92 A.D.2d 1004; see, People v. Owens, 111 A.D.2d 273, 274).

Finally, the propriety of the denial of defendant's severance motion is not properly before this court for review since a guilty plea waives all nonjurisdictional defects (see, People v Cleveland, 81 A.D.2d 944, 945; People v. Smith, 41 A.D.2d 893, 894).

Judgment affirmed. Mahoney, P.J., Casey, Weiss, Mikoll and Levine, JJ., concur.


Summaries of

People v. Clavijo

Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, Third Department
Jan 29, 1987
126 A.D.2d 907 (N.Y. App. Div. 1987)
Case details for

People v. Clavijo

Case Details

Full title:THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, Respondent, v. MANUEL CLAVIJO…

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

Date published: Jan 29, 1987

Citations

126 A.D.2d 907 (N.Y. App. Div. 1987)

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