People v. Moore

OPINION OF THE COURT

Memorandum.

The order of the Appellate Division in each case should be affirmed.

The defendants in these three cases challenge the use of prior convictions, obtained on guilty pleas, as the basis for sentencing them as predicate felons. Each defendant argues that the facts adduced at the plea allocutions were insufficient to establish the elements of the crime.

Initially, we note that defendants may challenge predicate convictions in this context only on constitutional grounds (CPL 400.21 [7] [b]). A guilty plea may be involuntary, and therefore unconstitutionally obtained,…