People v. Armstead

Appeal by the defendant from a judgment of the Supreme Court, Nassau County (Gulotta, Jr., J.), rendered July 9, 2012, convicting him of criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree and criminal possession of a controlled substance in the seventh degree, upon his plea of guilty, and imposing sentence.

*641 Ordered that the judgment is modified, on the law, by vacating the conviction of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the seventh degree and vacating the sentence imposed thereon; as so modified, the judgment is affirmed.

The defendant, by his plea of guilty, forfeited his right to challenge the geographic jurisdiction of Nassau County to prosecute the charged offense (see People v De Alvarez, 59 AD3d 732 [2009]; People v Pickens, 256 AD2d 425 [1998]; People v Gesualdi, 247 AD2d 629 [1998]).

As the People correctly concede, the Supreme Court erred in eliciting the defendant’s plea of guilty to criminal possession of a controlled substance in the seventh degree, because the previous dismissal of that count constituted a bar to any further prosecution on such charge (see CPL 210.20 [4]; People v David, 95 AD3d 1031 [2012]).

The defendant’s remaining contentions, including those raised in his pro se supplemental brief, are without merit.