
    The People of the State of New York, Respondent, v Corey L. Thomas, Appellant.
    [995 NYS2d 508]
   Judgment, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Peter J. Benitez, J.), rendered May 31, 2013, convicting defendant, upon his plea of guilty, of assault in the second degree, and sentencing him, as a second violent felony offender, to a term of five years, unanimously affirmed.

The sentencing court properly adjudicated defendant a second violent felony offender. Defendant’s predicate felony, criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree pursuant to former Penal Law § 265.02 (4), was a violent felony at the time of that conviction in 2000 (see People v Walker, 81 NY2d 661, 664-666 [1993]). Moreover, the same crime has been recodified as the more serious offense of criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree (Penal Law § 265.03 [3]; see People v Jones, 22 NY3d 53, 58 [2013]), which “remained a violent felony [offense] at the time of defendant’s second violent felony offender adjudication” (People v Bowens, 120 AD3d 1148, 1149 [1st Dept 2014]; see also People v Morse, 62 NY2d 205, 217 [1984]; Penal Law § 70.02 [1] [b]). Defendant’s ex post facto argument is improperly raised for the first time in his reply brief, and is without merit in any event.

Concur — Friedman, J.E, Acosta, Saxe, Manzanet-Daniels and Gische, JJ.  