Why is Trump scared of getting sentenced?

[Ocelot II]

1. He's already a convicted felon; a jury said so.

A conviction occurs upon either pleading guilty or receiving a guilty verdict, which has happened. The judgment of conviction occurs when sentence is imposed; it is the entry of a judgment of conviction that begins the defendant’s time to appeal. NY Criminal Procedure Law 1.20(13)-(15). Trump will certainly appeal the conviction, which he has the right to do, but he was convicted when the jury returned the verdict. The reason he's got his undies in such a bunch is that now he has to appear, either virtually or in person, before the judge who was so mean to him and face the legal music - the legal and actual reality of his conviction - even though he won't do prison time (and that was never going to happen), just before his inauguration. It's public and it's embarrassing and it reminds the public that he's a sleazebag who paid off a porn actress and hid the evidence of the payoff.