People v. Milton
People v. Milton
Opinion of the Court
OPINION OF THE COURT
At issue in this appeal is whether a superior court information (SCI) is jurisdictionally defective where it names victims not identified in the felony complaint. We conclude that the SCI in the present case was not defective.
Defendant waived his right to be prosecuted by indictment and pleaded guilty under an SCI to one count of grand larceny in the first degree (stealing property whose value exceeds $1 million) and one count of scheme to defraud in the first degree. At the plea hearing, defendant originally refused to plead guilty to the crimes charged in the SCI with respect to the named mortgage applicants. The SCI was changed to enumerate Indy Mac Bank and WMC Bank as the victims, and defendant then pleaded guilty. After the court denied defendant’s motions to withdraw his plea, the court sentenced defendant to 2 to 6 years incarceration on the grand larceny conviction and, with the consent of the People, vacated his plea to the scheme to defraud charge.
Before the Appellate Division, defendant raised numerous claims, including the argument that the SCI was jurisdictionally defective because the victims’ names differed from those listed in the felony complaint. The Appellate Division determined that the SCI was jurisdictionally defective because it “did not include at least one offense that was contained in the felony complaint,” vacated defendant’s plea, and did not reach defendant’s other claims (92 AD3d 899, 900 [2d Dept 2012] [internal quotation marks and citation omitted]). The Appellate Division’s holding rested entirely on its view that the designation of the victims in the SCI “differed from those named in the felony complaint” (id.). A Judge of this Court granted the People leave to appeal (19 NY3d 865 [2012]), and we now reverse.
Defendants may waive indictment by a grand jury and consent to be prosecuted by an SCI (see NY Const, art I, § 6; CPL 195.10, 195.20). Waivers of indictment allow a defendant to “obtain a
Here, the offense to which defendant pleaded guilty is the same offense for which he was charged in the felony complaint, and adding the names of the victims in the SCI did not render the offense a different one. Though the felony complaint did not name the banks that provided the loans, the complaint identified the specific properties in Queens and Brooklyn on which defendant took out mortgages in Hector Sandoval’s name. The felony complaint listed the sales prices of the properties and their exact addresses, adequately specifying the facts of the crime. The felony complaint charged defendant with grand larceny for stealing over $1 million to purchase those specified properties. In the amended SCI, the larceny was described with further specificity by naming the banks that provided the loans on the two properties. There was nothing inappropriate about adding the names of the victims as it did not change the offense alleged. The felony complaint named the victims of the alleged identity thefts, but not the victims of the first degree grand larceny. The felony complaint does not suggest that the people it names were victims of the latter crime; no one reading the felony complaint would infer that property worth more than $1 million was stolen from the identity theft victims. The alleged victims of first degree grand larceny were clearly the unnamed banks who provided mortgage loans totaling more than $1
Defendant now asserts that the felony complaint and the SCI allege different crimes—since the banks named in the SCI were not the ones who advanced the sums referred to in the felony complaint—but the record does not demonstrate this, and the burden of making a record sufficient to permit appellate review is on the party seeking it (see People v McLean, 15 NY3d 117, 121 [2010]).
Accordingly, the Appellate Division order should be reversed, the superior court information reinstated, and the case remitted to the Appellate Division for consideration of the facts and issues raised but not determined on the appeal to that court.
Judges Graffeo, Read, Smith, Pigott and Rivera concur.
Order reversed, superior court information reinstated, and case remitted to the Appellate Division, Second Department, for
To the extent defendant specifically claims Indy Mac Bank and WMC Bank were not the banks that provided the loans on the two properties, defendant essentially raises a factual issue that is unpreserved and beyond our review (see People v Patterson, 39 NY2d 288, 295 [1976], affd Patterson v New York, 432 US 197 [1977] [“A defendant cannot be permitted to sit idly by while error is committed, thereby allowing the error to pass into the record uncured”]). A purported error or insufficiency in the facts of an indictment or information to which a plea is taken does not constitute a nonwaivable jurisdictional defect and must be raised in the trial court (see People v Iannone, 45 NY2d 589, 600 [1978]). Belatedly, the People are not required to substantiate and prove every fact listed in an SCI, as that would turn every criminal plea into a mini-trial.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- The People of the State of New York v. Jacob Milton
- Cited By
- 30 cases
- Status
- Published