Robert S. Dean, Center for Appellate Litigation, New York (Antoine Morris of counsel), for appellant.
Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., District Attorney, New York (Beth Fisch Cohen of counsel), for respondent.
ACOSTA, J.P., RENWICK, SAXE, FEINMAN, KAHN, JJ.
Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Laura A. Ward, J.), rendered November 4, 2013, convicting defendant, upon his plea of guilty, of robbery in the first degree, and sentencing him to a term of 18 years, unanimously affirmed.
Defendant's challenge to the voluntariness of his plea does not come within the narrow exception to the preservation
requirement (see People v. Lopez, 71 N.Y.2d 662, 665–666, 529 N.Y.S.2d 465, 525 N.E.2d 5 [1988] ), and we decline to review this unpreserved claim in the interest of justice. As an alternative holding, we also reject it on the merits. During his plea allocution, defendant complained about the length of the promised sentence, but said nothing that cast any doubt on his guilt (see People v. Toxey, 86 N.Y.2d 725, 631 N.Y.S.2d 119, 655 N.E.2d 160 [1995] ), and the allocution, viewed as a whole, establishes the voluntariness of the plea. Since defendant neither denied his guilt during the allocution nor moved to withdraw the plea, the court had no obligation to conduct a sua sponte inquiry into defendant's postplea denial of guilt, reflected in the presentence report (see e.g. People v. Praileau, 110 A.D.3d 415, 971 N.Y.S.2d 533 [1st Dept.2013], lv. denied 22 N.Y.3d 1202, 986 N.Y.S.2d 422, 9 N.E.3d 917 [2014] ; People v. Pantoja, 281 A.D.2d 245, 721 N.Y.S.2d 535 [1st Dept.2001], lv denied 96 N.Y.2d 905, 730 N.Y.S.2d 803, 756 N.E.2d 91 [2001] ), or a statement defendant made at sentencing that essentially reiterated his desire for a more lenient sentence.
We perceive no basis for reducing the sentence.