Justice Robert Kohm
Singleton was indicted for rape, sodomy, burglary, assault and sexual abuse after attacking a 71 year old woman. He moved to set aside his sentences arguing they were unauthorized, illegally imposed and invalid. Singleton claimed the sentence imposed on his convictions should run concurrent to each other as the criminal charges all stemmed from one criminal act. The sentencing court ran the sentences for rape, sodomy and burglary consecutive to each other noting that none of the three subject offenses were committed through a single act, nor did the offenses constitute a material element of any of the other offenses. The Appellate Division in People v. Rodriguez concluded that each of the sex crimes was a separate act within the meaning of the Penal Law, and nothing in the Penal Law required any type of interval or interruption in a continuous attack for the individual acts to qualify as separate for sentencing purposes. Thus, Singleton’s rape and sodomy of the victim constituted separate and distinct acts justifying imposition of consecutive sentences despite that they occurred in the course of a continuous incident. Hence, the court found it was lawful and appropriate to impose a sentence consecutive to the sentences imposed for the sexual offenses, denying his motion.
