Guilty Plea Vacated and Count Dismissed Due to Jurisdictional Defect
Mr. Evans, a juvenile offender, pled guilty to second-degree criminal possession of a weapon. Under the Penal Law, a 15-year-old may be criminally responsible for conduct constituting such crime when the weapon is possessed on school grounds. On appeal, Mr. Evans contended that the indictment was jurisdictionally defective because it failed to allege that he possessed the weapon “on school grounds.”
The Appellate Division agreed, vacated the plea, and dismissed that count of the indictment. Reversal was required because the indictment did not allege a material element of the charged crime — that it occurred “on school grounds” — and the prosecutor’s statement at the plea that the possession occurred within 1,000 feet of school grounds did not cure the defect.
Anna Kou represented Mr. Evans