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Akron woman charged with DWI and Leandra’s Law felony

December 31, 2012, 5:07 pm
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An Akron woman faces drunken driving and other charges after police said she was intoxicated while driving with a child in her vehicle.

Robin M. Finsterbach, 38, of Barnum Road, was arrested by Erie County Sheriff Deputies Lee Richard and Gene Nati for driving while intoxicated, operating a vehicle with a suspended licensee and a felony Leandra’s Law charge because she had a child with her when they stopped her about 9 p.m. Sunday on Transit Road near the Transitown Plaza in Clarence.

A breath test showed she had a blood-alcohol level of 0.08 percent. The child in the car with her was turned over to a family member.

Finsterbach faces further proceeding in Clarence Town Court.
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Lisbon avenue man mugged in his own driveway

December 31, 2012, 5:20 pm
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Buffalo police are looking for two men who mugged and robbed a Lisbon Avenue man in his driveway Sunday evening.

The victim said he was struck on his left arm by the bandit carrying a handgun as he was fighting with the other suspect who had a long rifle.

The victim said both men were dressed in all black gear, with black winter hats.

He said he was assaulted when he started fighting with the man holding the long rifle after that man told him “I’m gonna shoot you.” The victim said after he was robbed he saw the bandits flee east on Lisbon toward Suffolk Avenue. He refused medical attention Sunday evening.
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Buffalo ends year with 50 homicides

December 31, 2012, 7:21 pm
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It was a bloody year for the City of Good Neighbors.

Fifty people were victims of homicides last year, up nearly 40 percent from the previous year’s total of 36.

The vast majority of the killings were related to drug deals and turf wars involving small-time, neighborhood gangs, police say.

Thug life often ends in bloodshed that is anything but random, police and community leaders say.

“In so many of these cases, the victim will have an extensive criminal record and enemies from associations with gangs and/or the illegal narcotics trade,” Buffalo Chief of Detectives Dennis J. Richards said.

But street violence also claimed the lives of innocent bystanders.

Samantha Cothran, a bright 23-year-old aspiring pharmacist, is one such victim.

A Nardin Academy and Fisk University graduate who was studying at D’Youville College to become a pharmacist, Cothran was catching a breath of fresh air outside a house party on the 600 block of Minnesota Avenue in the early-morning hours of May 13 when a shooter killed her and wounded a young man.

This first Christmas season without her granddaughter has been extraordinarily painful, Betty Bosely said.

“I’ve hung Samantha’s Christmas stocking from the fireplace mantle with the other grandchildren’s stockings,” Bosely said. “I think about Samantha every day and wonder why.”

In another instance of innocents caught in the crossfire, a group of family and friends picnicking at Martin Luther King Park in May experienced the wrath of a gunman who apparently had set out to shoot a specific individual.

When the bullets stopped flying, Marquayle Lee, 26, was dead, the victim of a gunshot wound. Four others also were wounded but survived. They had gone to the park to celebrate a birthday and the return of a friend who had been out of town.

The shooting outraged the community, not only because of the bloodshed, but because of its location – a park named in honor of the slain civil rights leader, who had devoted his life to peace and equality.

No arrests have been made, but police say they are making progress.

Sometimes, though, the lines between the truly innocent and victims who have been involved in crime are blurred, like when someone spends time with a drug or gang crowd. One local family disputed police claims their loved one was killed because of drug activity. As it turned out, police say he was in the company of people who may have been targeted by others in the drug trade.

Yet one thing one is certain.

“Whether it is gang-, drug- or domestic-related, most of the victims are known to the suspects,” Buffalo Police Commissioner Daniel Derenda said.

Domestic violence, however, is a category unto its own:

• In the late afternoon of April 17, Ali-Mohamed Mohamud took his 10-year-old stepson Abdifatah Mohamud to the basement of the family’s Guilford Street home and struck him some 70 times with a baker’s rolling pin, pulverizing the boy’s skull. Mohamud, who claimed to be frustrated over the boy’s approach to homework, is now serving a maximum prison sentence of 25 years to life.

• On the morning of June 13 as the work day was just beginning, Jacqueline Wisniewski was lured into a stairwell in an office building at Erie County Medical Center by her estranged boyfriend, surgeon Timothy V. Jorden Jr., who shot the 33-year-old woman five times at close range with a .357 Magnum.

Two days later, Jorden’s body was found in a densely wooded ravine not far from his lakefront home in Lake View. Police said he had shot himself in the head with the same gun.

• On the afternoon of Aug. 1, four-year-old Roderick “Manny” Geiger III was found bleeding to death on his family’s Esser Avenue porch in Riverside. His grandmother, Charlene M. Fears, 38, had stabbed him, and she was shot and killed when she refused several requests to drop two blood-stained butcher knives as she advanced toward a police officer.

• The youngest homicide victim of 2012 was a seven-week-old baby from North Buffalo. Michael J. Clifford Jr. died Nov. 15 after being violently shaken in his Heath Street home Nov. 10. The infant’s killer has not yet been arrested.

• Buffalo’s oldest homicide victim was 59-year-old Ronald P. Wilson. He was fatally stabbed Sept. 9 in the Gerhardt Street apartment of his girlfriend, who was charged in the killing. Police said the couple had been drinking and using drugs.

But most of the city’s homicides were related to small-time gang or drug activity, police said.

And law-abiding residents are fearful of what they see on the street.

“You know it is bad when you drive down the street and see them selling drugs and their pants are down to their knees or when you go in a store and you don’t know if they are going to jump you or rob you or if somebody is going to drive by and shoot you,” Bosely, the grandmother of slain Samantha Cothran, said of the thugs who make life hazardous for ordinary citizens.

Forty-three of 2012’s homicide victims died from gunfire, with handguns most frequently used, though in some cases killers used more powerful AK-47 rifles, known as “choppers” because of their firepower. Five other people were fatally stabbed and two died of blunt force trauma.

Homicide detectives made arrests in 12 of the slayings and at least eight to 10 more of the cases are expected to be solved in the “not too distant future,” Derenda said.

With a dozen of the 50 cases solved, the city’s clearance rate is at 24 percent. However, 10 other homicide cases from past years also were solved in 2012, Derenda pointed out.

Many witnesses to gang- and drug-related killings are frightened to come forward. Others who are close to the homicide victims prefer to rely on street justice, particularly when all of the individuals involved are operating outside the law, police say.

“This is especially true in the category of the unsolved homicides, ” Richards said.

Buffalo police are constantly evaluating and updating their response to violent crime, according to Derenda, who recently changed directions and did away with the Mobile Response Unit, replacing it with “Strike Force,” which includes state, county and suburban police officers flooding hot spots in the city.

“We are always looking to do better than we did the day before, and we continue to work with our state, federal and local partners to make Buffalo a safer place,” Derenda said.

And while he says “one homicide is too many,” Derenda added that last year’s 50 slayings is on the low end for the last 10 years.

He pointed out that before the low of 36 homicides in 2011, there were 55 homicides in 2010.

He also added that crime in the city overall has steadily dropped.

Community leaders also are looking for ways to reduce violence.

Erie County Legislator Betty Jean Grant has established the Erie County/Buffalo Safe Neighborhoods Initiative, and it will have its first meeting later this month. The initiative’s members include law enforcement, elected officials, anti-violence advocates, representatives of the mental health community and any citizen who wants to have a voice in fighting bloodshed.

“We can’t give up and admit defeat,” Grant said. “For the few who commit these heinous crimes, there are many young men and women in our county and city who are doing the right thing, and we want to commend them. We’re focusing on why crime happens and how we can deter it by providing counseling, mentoring and educational and job opportunities.”

Dwayne Ferguson, president and CEO of Mad Dads of Greater Buffalo, added that citizens can play a major role in reducing bloodshed by cooperating with police when they have information that could help solve a crime.

“The truth could solve a lot of homicides and shootings. We need to be a community. We need to be open. People need to step out, no matter what it looks like,” Ferguson said. “I look at 50 homicides and it could have been a lot less than that if the community had come together.”

As for Samantha Cothran, Betty Bosely believes her granddaughter’s killer will be brought to justice.

“Someone will turn against the other and it will come out,” she said.



email: lmichel@buffnews.com
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HTK

December 31, 2012, 7:21 pm
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The victims of 2012

Buffalo 50 homicides last year



1. Arthur Walton, 34, died Jan. 12, stabbed, Roebling Avenue; under investigation.

2. Adrian L. Huggins Jr., 25, died Jan. 18 after being shot 10 days earlier at Wohlers Avenue and Dodge Street; under investigation.

3. Brian G. Chapman Jr., 39, Feb. 2, Guilford Street, shot; case cleared with arrest.

4. Fred Rozier, 20, Feb. 9, Deerfield Avenue, shot; partially cleared with two arrests for robbery.

5. Brad Daniels, 31, Feb. 29, Bardol Street, shot; under investigation

6. Anthony Pitts, 20, March 2, Fillmore Avenue, shot; cleared with arrest.

7. Abdifatah Mohamud, 10, April 17, Guilford Street, blunt force trauma; cleared with arrest.

8. Corddaryl Henley, 25, May 5, Walden Avenue, shot; under investigation.

9. Mark Anderson, 28, May 7, Jefferson Avenue and East North Street, shot; under investigation.

10. Gary Joiner, 56, May 9, May Street, shot; under investigation.

11. Samantha Cothran, 23, May 13, Minnesota Avenue, shot; under investigation.

12. Marquayle Lee, 26, died May 15, after being shot three days earlier at Martin Luther King Park; under investigation.

13. Shaquille Woods, 19, May 19, Massachusetts and Shields avenues, shot; under investigation.

14. Justin G. Miller, 24, May 19, Kilhoffer Street, shot; under investigation.

15. Vernon Hardy, 24, May 22, 18th Street, shot; under investigation.

16. Jacqueline Wisniewski, 33, June 13, Erie County Medical Center, Grider Street, shot; cleared with suicide of killer.

17. Marcus Bellamy, 42, June 16, Eller Avenue, shot; under investigation.

18. Hassan Jabbar, 25, June 17, East Ferry Street, shot, under investigation.

19. Phillip Washington, 20, June 27, Goemble Avenue, shot; under investigation.

20. Jeremy J. Lamar, 19, June 29, West Delavan Avenue, near Main Street, shot; under investigation.

21. Darrell Anderson, 30, July 1, Goodyear Avenue, shot; under investigation.

22. Darren Brown, 16, July 6, Colvin Avenue, stabbed; cleared with arrest.

23. Darryl McDavis, 26, July 18, East Ferry and Stevens streets, shot; cleared with arrest.

24. Dominique Cotton, 17, July 22, Davidson Street, shot; under investigation.

25. John Richard, 45, July 25, after being shot 10 days earlier on Walden Avenue; under investigation.

26. Jose Rivera, 23, July 31, West Avenue, shot; under investigation.

27. Roderick Geiger, 4, Aug. 1, Esser Avenue, stabbed; cleared.

28. James Henley, 27, Aug. 19, Delaware Avenue, shot; under investigation.

29. Jeremy Thomas, 23, Aug. 22, after being shot Aug. 8 on Sumner Place; under investigation.

30. Walter Davison, 34, Aug. 26, Carl Street, shot; under investigation.

31. Quincy Balance, 18, Aug. 30, Northland Avenue, shot; under investigation.

32. Samuel Gamblin, 29, Sept. 8, Person Street, shot; under investigation.

33. Ronald P. Wilson, 59, Sept. 9, Gerhardt Street, stabbed; cleared.

34. Jeremiah Cooper, 20, Sept. 12, West Avenue, shot; under investigation.

35. Jeremy Lott, 23, Sept. 23, Fillmore Avenue, shot; cleared.

36. Michael Ballard Jr., 22, Oct. 5, Woodlawn Avenue; stabbed, cleared.

37. Josean Sanabria-Negron, 26, Oct. 6, Maryland Street, shot; under investigation.

38. Roderick Peoples Jr., 32, Oct. 13, Delaware Avenue, shot; under investigation.

39. Todd Pointer, 24, Oct. 14, Genesee Street and Jefferson Avenue; shot, under investigation.

40. Barelle Harris, 28, Oct. 16, Goodyear Avenue, shot; under investigation.

41. Michael Foster, 31, Oct. 23, Courtland Avenue, shot; under investigation.

42. Dyshawn Hammonds, 22, died Oct. 29, after being shot Sept. 15, 2011, on Freund Street; under investigation.

43. Rashiene Carson, 24, Nov. 10, Ontario Street, shot; cleared with arrest.

44. Michael J. Clifford Jr., seven weeks old, died Nov. 15 after suffering blunt force trauma five days earlier, Heath Street; under investigation.

45. Richard J. Jemes, 24, Nov. 22, Jefferson and East Delavan avenues, shot; under investigation.

46. Lewis Adams, 16, Nov. 30, Deer Street, shot; under investigation.

47. Shameka Harris, 28, Dec. 11, Minnesota Avenue, shot; under investigation.

48. Joshua “Bigs” Eatmon, 23, Dec. 11, Minnesota Avenue, shot; under investigation.

49. Joseph Lester, 27, Dec. 20, Woodlawn Avenue, shot; under investigation.

50. Ahmed J. Coon, 40, Dec. 27, Mohr Avenue, shot; under investigation.



Source: Buffalo Police Department
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Howard’s life term upheld by state appellate court

December 31, 2012, 7:21 pm
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An appeals court has upheld the life sentence given to a Buffalo man for what a trial judge called a “brutal and senseless” killing in 2008.

Earl Howard, now 21 and an inmate at Southport Correctional Facility, was convicted of second-degree murder and weapons charges on Nov. 19, 2010 for the fatal shooting of Dayton Collins on Bailey Avenue near Collingwood Street two years earlier.

The five-judge Appellate Division of State Supreme Court in Rochester, which heard arguments in the case two months ago, agreed with appeals prosecutor David Panepinto and trial prosecutor James F. Barngesi that both the conviction and sentence handed down by Senior Erie County Judge Michael L. D’Amico were supported by the weight of the evidence in the case.

The appellate court stressed that during Howard’s nonjury trial, two men and a woman who had lived on the same street as Howard testified that they saw him shoot Collins during a street altercation on July 6, 2008.

The Rochester tribunal also cited trial testimony of Howard’s former drug-dealing associate, who testified that Howard “admitted to him that he shot the victim.”

The appellate court also accepted Panepinto’s contention that the fact that Howard moved to California several days after the incident was “uncontroverted evidence” of his “consciousness of guilt.”

“The fact that defendant returned to Buffalo after the police discovered his location in California” supported the prosecution theory that he “fled to California to avoid arrest” and did not go there simply because his mother, Rhonda Henderson, thought he needed a “different environment,” as she testified at her son’s trial.

At his Jan. 4, 2011 sentencing, Howard told D’Amico: “I’m not an angel, but I’m not a devil and I am not a killer.”

The judge ordered Howard to begin serving his life term after he completed the year he then owed on a Buffalo drug dealing conviction.

Howard was indicted for the Collins murder in March 2010, at a time when he was reportedly only months away from being released on parole for a Buffalo drug conviction.

In November 2009, Howard began serving a brief prison term in the state’s Cayuga Correctional Facility on his latest Buffalo drug conviction.

Because of the unanimous appellate court ruling, Howard has no chance of getting the state Court of Appeals to consider a further appeal. His next possible appeal would have to be to in federal court, officials said Monday.

email: mgryta@buffnews.com
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Counterfeit season ends with more stadium arrests

December 31, 2012, 7:22 pm
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Counterfeiters of NFL merchandise selling their fake wares outside Ralph Wilson Stadium took a beating this season with Orchard Park police and federal authorities making a number of arrests, including another five on Sunday.

Investigators seized three cargo trailers and two trucks packed with counterfeit National Football League T-shirts and jerseys, many believed to be manufactured in China. They also seized more than $5,000 in U.S. and Canadian currency when making this latest round of arrests at different sites on Abbott Road and on Erie County land at the stadium, according to Orchard Park Detective John Payne.

The probe began last summer at the start of preseason games when town officers were responding to complaints of underage drinking, marijuana use and “people in general causing trouble,” Police Chief Andrew Benz said.

“I had police officers looking to enforce quality-of-life issues from complaints that we had received from residents near the stadium. That’s when we spotted people selling merchandise without permits and obstructing traffic while selling,” Benz said. “We actually got some of the merchandise and questioned whether it was trademarked. The NFL sent an investigator to help.”

Once the garments were identified as fake, Payne said he and fellow officers began making arrests throughout the Bills’ football season, with a “final sweep” of arrests Sunday.

“We started to see a lot of these unlicensed vendors walking around the stadium parking lots selling trademark counterfeit T-shirts and jerseys out of their backpacks,” Payne said. “The T-shirts were selling for $5 and the jerseys for $30. When somebody is purchasing a jersey, which normally sells for $100, that should be a clue it’s counterfeit.”

Arrested Sunday on state charges of trademark counterfeiting were Kelly Cerrone, 44, of Buffalo; Kyle Koch, 46, of Hamburg; Ronald Shattuck, 40, of Lackawanna; and Kenneth Smith, 49, and Joshua Wyskiel, 31, both of Le Roy. Their cases are pending in Orchard Park Town Court and federal charges are expected to be lodged against them by Homeland Security Investigations personnel.

Detective Lt. Patrick McMaster, Detective Larry Brand and Officers Patrick Fitzgerald, David Bowersox and Joseph Ray all assisted in the investigation, along with the federal police.

The sale of sports-related counterfeit merchandise has recently become a risky enterprise.

In late November, an Amherst man was arrested by Niagara County sheriff’s deputies for allegedly selling counterfeit sports caps like those made by New Era Cap Co. and other manufacturers at the Town of Niagara’s Fashion Outlets of Niagara Falls. More than 200 counterfeits caps with a retail value of $6,000 were confiscated.

That same month, on “Cyber Monday,” federal investigators in Buffalo shut down 15 websites allegedly selling counterfeit New Era caps and other sports merchandise. At the time, U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul Jr. pointed out that these are not victimless crimes. Not only is the company harmed, but so are its employees, he said.



email: lmichel@buffnews.com
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Lockport man held for attempted murder after 7-year-old girl is attacked

December 31, 2012, 7:27 pm
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LOCKPORT – A Lockport man is being held in attempted murder charges after police said he tried to kill a 7-year-old girl.

David Alfonso, 28, was arrested by Lockport police early Monday afternoon at Lock and Monroe Streets.

Police responded to a 911 call and said they found Alfonso at the intersetion covered in blood, which he allegedly rubbed on a patrol car until he was tasered and arrested and taken to Lockport Hospital for medical care.

Cassandra Castro, 27, told police at her Monroe Street home that Alfonso had tried to kill her 7-year-old daughter. The injured girl was found at her grandmother’s home on Church Street and taken to Women and Children’s Hospital for treatment. She was reported in stable condition in the hospital.

After he was treated, Alfonso was jailed on second-degree attempted murder, second-degree strangulation and second-degree assault charges. Police have not yet reported a motive for the alleged attack.
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Traffic stop leads to two arrests for heroin possession

December 31, 2012, 7:29 pm
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A Dunkirk man was nabbed by authorities Monday, nine days after he and an Irving man were caught allegedly transporting a large quantity of heroin into the city, Dunkirk police reported.

Raymond Rodriguez-Santiago, 39, of West Second Street, was arrested by Dunkirk police early Monday on a warrant stemming from the evening traffic stop Dec. 22 on Middle Road at the city line.

A Dunkirk police officer observed a vehicle driven by Michael A. Orazio, 42, of Irving, make an abrupt left turn from Lake Shore Drive East onto Stegelske Avenue without signaling about 7:25 p.m. Dec. 22, in an apparent move to avoid traveling past a Dunkirk patrol car, authorities said.

The officer stopped Orazio on Middle Road near the city line as he was about to head back out of the city, police said.

Orazio was arrested immediately after he was allegedly found to be driving on a suspended license. His passenger, Rodriguez-Santiago, left the area from the stop.

A subsequent investigation by police revealed “several thousand dollars worth of heroin and a small amount of marijuana, both being packaged for distribution,” according to police reports.

The heroin was secreted inside the vehicle. Police said it became apparent then that Rodriguez-Santiago was also allegedly involved.

Besides failure to use a turn signal and aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle, Orazio was charged at the scene with violation marijuana possession as well as felony criminal possession of a controlled substance.

The follow-up investigation led police to Rodriguez-Santiago. He was taken into custody Monday pending arraignment in Dunkirk City Court, police said.

Additional arrests and charges were expected, police also noted.



email: tpignataro@buffnews.com
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Man admits shooting Falls teen in chest

January 3, 2013, 8:31 pm
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LOCKPORT – Paul E. Buck Jr. admitted in Niagara County Court on Thursday that he gunned down an 18-year-old man on a Niagara Falls street corner April 25, leaving him with a bullet lodged near his heart that surgeons are unable to safely remove.

Buck, 21, who said he has no home but jail, accepted a plea deal to a reduced charge of second-degree assault and agreed to testify against co-defendants Jacob J. Taggart, 23, and Marlyn M. Rubin, 20, of the Falls.

They are scheduled for trial Jan. 28 on charges of first-degree assault and gang first-degree assault, but Deputy District Attorney Doreen M. Hoffmann said that although they rejected plea offers before, she might reinstate them.

“If they asked, I probably would,” Hoffmann said. The offers would be Class D felonies, the same level of plea that Buck agreed to Thursday.

The maximum penalty for that is seven years in state prison. The maximum would be 25 years behind bars for those convicted of the original charges at trial.

Although Buck admitted shooting Anthony McDougald in the incident at 12th and Niagara streets, that’s doesn’t get Taggart and Rubin off the hook.

County Judge Matthew J. Murphy III said the defense attorneys in the case have been fixated on who actually shot McDougald. “That’s not an element of the gang assault charge or the assault charge,” the judge reminded them.

The three were indicted under the accomplice liability provision, meaning all are equally guilty if prosecutors can show they had criminal intent toward McDougald.

“There was an argument,” Buck said under questioning by Murphy. “We had some words. We were going to fight, but we didn’t. We went toward the casino.”

“You shot him?” the judge asked.

“Yeah,” Buck answered.

“Were Mr. Taggart and Mr. Rubin with you at the time?” Murphy asked. “They were,” Buck replied.

The plea came after Murphy ruled that Buck’s statements to police would be admissible in a trial.

Taggart’s attorney, Frank L. LoTempio, said he would talk to Taggart about taking a plea.

Rubin is the only one of the three who is not in jail. McDougald testified that he saw Buck and Taggart with guns, but not Rubin.



email: tprohaska@buffnews.com
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Long prison terms ordered in home invasion, burglary

January 3, 2013, 8:31 pm
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LOCKPORT – Judges dished out stiff sentences in separate cases Thursday, both involving repeat felons.

State Supreme Court Justice Richard C. Kloch Sr. sent Deonte J. Brinson of Niagara Falls to prison for 15 years in connection with a Jan. 23 armed home invasion in the Falls that was blamed for the female victim’s subsequent miscarriage.

Niagara County Judge Sara Sheldon Farkas imposed a 10-year sentence on Dennis M. Schultz of Lockport for a home burglary.

Brinson, 21, of Mackenna Avenue, was sentenced after Kloch rejected a motion from defense attorney Robert Viola to have another judge handle the sentencing.

Viola said he thought Kloch had prejudged the case by announcing at the Nov. 9 sentencing of co-defendant Marcel M. Walker that Brinson was “going down.”

Brinson had pleaded guilty to all the counts in the original indictment – two counts each of first-degree robbery and first-degree burglary and single counts of fourth-degree grand larceny and third-degree criminal mischief – in exchange for a sentencing cap of 15 years. He faced up to 25 years if convicted at trial.

Walker, 23, of Pierce Avenue, received four years in prison after pleading guilty to attempted first-degree burglary.

Viola told Kloch that at Walker’s sentencing, “You basically stated you were going to max my client out.”

“I told him he was pretty much going to get the 15 years when he took the cap,” Kloch said.

Viola said Walker’s four-year sentence was “good lawyering on somebody’s part.”

Kloch replied, “His DNA was not on the gun. Your client’s DNA was on the gun that was shoved into the face of this young woman, who subsequently lost a baby.”

Viola said, “I hope Your Honor is not trying to balance the scales [with a long sentence for Brinson].”

“That’s a ridiculous comment,” Kloch said. “I would never do that. I’m going to sentence Mr. Brinson for what he did.”

The victim said she thought Brinson deserved the 15 years.

At the other sentencing, Schultz’s attorney, Michael D’Amico, said his client is appealing the Oct. 3 jury verdict that convicted him of second-degree burglary, fourth-degree criminal possession of stolen property, fourth-degree grand larceny and possession of burglary tools.

Schultz, 21, of Olcott Street, was on parole for an attempted burglary conviction when a sheriff’s deputy caught him walking down Chestnut Ridge Road in Lockport about 5:30 a.m. March 14, wearing a dark face mask and carrying a backpack.

The backpack contained a man’s wallet, a woman’s purse, an iPad, an iPod and an iPhone, all of which had been reported stolen from a home on Ridgewood Drive in the Town of Lockport.

“It appears there are some mental health issues that haven’t been adequately addressed in his life,” D’Amico told the judge.

“He was on parole and was offered all kinds of help. He said he was too busy,” Farkas replied.

“Unless he takes responsibility, I don’t think he’s ever going to move on.”



email: tprohaska@buffnews.com
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Traffic slowed, two hurt in head-on crash in Orchard Park

January 3, 2013, 8:40 pm
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Two drivers were taken by ambulance to Erie County Medical Center late Thursday after a two-vehicle crash at Abbott Road and Southwestern Boulevard, Orchard Park police said.

Both drivers were driving on Southwestern about 10:25 p.m., police said. The westbound driver was making a left turn onto Abbott when the eastbound driver crashed into the passenger side of his car, police said.

Traffic at the intersection was cleared about 11:15 p.m. The crash remained under investigation late Thursday and the names of the drivers and severity of their injuries was not yet available.

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Frightful holdup at Cheektowaga bank nets prison for 3

January 3, 2013, 10:13 pm
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A 40-second bank holdup has led to prison sentences of 3½ years for three robbers.

Three Buffalo residents who frightened employees and customers June 8 at a Bank of America branch in Cheektowaga were led Thursday from an Erie County courtroom in handcuffs.

Antoinette Freeman, 24, of Wyoming Street; Porche Allen, 23, of Mendola Avenue; and Darian Allen Jr., 21, also of Mendola, were sentenced to the same prison terms by Erie County Judge Kenneth F. Case.

“You all entered into it collectively. You all contributed to this awful event. You’re all equally responsible,” Case said.

They each could have been sentenced to up to 15 years in prison.

The three entered the bank on Dick Road near George Urban Boulevard with a BB gun and forced about a dozen customers and employees to lie on the floor.

One jumped the counter and grabbed an undisclosed amount of money before they all fled.

The crime was not a typical bank robbery in which someone hands a teller a note demanding money without causing a stir or threatening customers, said prosecutor Sara N. Ogden. “This,” she said, “was more of a bank takedown.”

Freeman, for example, threatened to kill people, Ogden said, and the employees and customers feared for their lives and remain scarred today.

“I realize this gun was an unloaded BB gun, but the people in the bank that day didn’t know that,” Case told the robbers at the sentencing. He said he was shocked by the three who stood before him, two of whom said they are full-time students, hold jobs and are parents.

“I’m shocked when I look at these presentence reports,” Case said. “You have minuscule or no [criminal] records at all.”

Normally, when Case sentences bank robbers, they have progressed to that kind of serious crime over the years, beginning with less serious crimes. Case said the three were probably “in as much disbelief as I am” as they stood before him.

The three did not evade Cheektowaga police for long after the holdup. An eyewitness gave police the license plate number of the getaway car.

Also, police tracked the robbers through a global positioning system attached to the stolen money.

The police tracked the money and arrested the three 20 minutes after the robbery in the Allens’ apartment on Mendola on the East Side, the District Attorney’s Office has said.

In September, the three pleaded guilty to second-degree robbery.

The robbers, who were not in custody before the sentencing, hugged and shook hands with family and friends in the public gallery as they were called to the defense table to learn their sentences. Before the hearing, one of the robbers posed for pictures outside the courtroom.

Financial desperation drove them to rob the bank, their lawyers said. All three apologized for the crime.

“We all make mistakes,” Porche Allen told the judge. “Unfortunately, mine was a bigger one. It was an act of desperation. It was out of my character. I can’t apologize enough.”

A presentencing report indicated that Darian Allen Jr. did not show remorse for the crime during his interview with a Probation Department official. But in his appearance before the judge, he said, “I’m truly sorry.”

He apologized to everyone who was inside the bank.

“I want to apologize not only to my friends and family, but to those who were inside the bank,” Freeman said during her time to speak. “I promise you I will grow from this to be a better mother and woman.”

“I’ve grown from this since that day,” she said, referring to the day of the robbery. “I stand before you a better person.”



email: plakamp@buffnews.com
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‘What took you so long?,’ alleged mall thief asks arresting parole officer

January 3, 2013, 10:15 pm
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When a recently released ex-convict was taken into custody Thursday in a couple of holiday thefts at Walden Galleria, her first words to a state parole officer were, “What took you so long? I was all over the media.”

That was the account that Cheektowaga Police Capt. James Speyer gave when announcing that Judith M. Nestel, 64, had been arrested at about 9 a.m. at her Bailey Avenue apartment.

Nestel, a former Buffalo and Town of Tonawanda resident, was released Dec. 19 from the state’s Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for women after serving nine years and three months of a 12-year prison term for arson.

A photo of Nestel walking through Walden Galleria after one of two thefts from employee areas at two mall stores was released to the news media Wednesday and broadcast, including on buffalonews.com.

Police and Walden Galleria management appreciated help from the public and news media, Speyer said. “We got tips that resulted in her arrest,” he said, “and they are still coming in even though she is now in custody and awaiting arraignment in Cheektowaga Town Court [today].”

Wednesday, police described the Walden Galleria thief as a woman about 5 feet, 4 inches tall and weighing about 180 pounds who walks with a limp.

They said she first struck at about 2:25 p.m. on Christmas Eve, entering the employee locker room at BEBE and taking a wallet from an unlocked locker.

Police believe she returned at about 1:10 p.m. Saturday, this time going to the employee locker room at Pottery Barn and taking items from a worker’s purse.

Nestel is a twice-convicted felon, according to state prison records.

She pleaded guilty in June 2003 to setting two fires at a Huetter Street apartment building in Buffalo in September 2002. Nobody was injured in the fires, which Nestel set because of a grudge with another building resident, according to Buffalo News accounts from that time.

State Supreme Court Justice Russell P. Buscaglia sentenced her Sept. 3, 2003, to 12 years in state prison.

She was sentenced as a second felony offender because of her conviction in 1999 for a Buffalo robbery.

In exchange for her pretrial guilty plea in the apartment building arson, Nestel was spared prosecution in a third case involving a July 2002 theft of a purse containing credit cards and $80 cash at Kenmore Mercy Hospital, according to News archives.

Nestel was charged in the Walden Galleria thefts with four counts of fourth-degree grand larceny and one count of petit larceny. Because of her criminal history, she could face up to 16 years if convicted as charged.

Under her release terms from prison last month, she was to be on post-release parole supervision until December 2017, according to state prison records.



email: mgryta@buffnews.com
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North Tonawanda teen admits to sex crime

January 4, 2013, 6:13 am
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LOCKPORT – A North Tonawanda teen pleaded guilty Thursday in Niagara County Court to fondling a 9-year-old girl in his bedroom during Memorial Day weekend last year.

Jordan L. Hoefert, 17, of Payne Avenue, admitted to first-degree sexual abuse and was scheduled for sentencing March 21 by County Judge Matthew J. Murphy III. The maximum sentence is seven years is prison, and Hoefert also will be a registered sex offender.

Assistant District Attorney Robert A. Zucco said North Tonawanda police originally charged Hoefert with attempted rape in the May 27 incident.

Defense attorney Patrick McLaughlin said Hoefert has been diagnosed with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder and bipolar syndrome, but he also graduated from high school a year early and is now in college.
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Lockport woman pleads not guilty in drug case

January 4, 2013, 12:51 pm
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LOCKPORT – A woman accused of having nearly an ounce of cocaine when police raided a Lockport home Sept. 12 was arraigned Friday in Niagara County Court.

Kimberly L. Hamilton, 38, of Elmwood Avenue, pleaded not guilty to two counts of third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance. A co-defendant, Ulford G. Jenkins, 41, of Elmwood Avenue, pleaded not guilty to the same charges Dec. 20.

Police said they seized .88 ounces of cocaine in the raid on Jenkins’ home.
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Second man pleads guilty in Falls gun case

January 4, 2013, 12:56 pm
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LOCKPORT – Michael S. Loverdi admitted Friday that he had a loaded handgun with him April 26 when he and another man unwittingly interrupted a Niagara Falls police drug raid on a Third Street apartment.

Loverdi, 20, of 20th Street in the Falls, pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of attempted second-degree criminal possession of a weapon and could receive up to seven years in prison when he is sentencing March 28 by Niagara County Judge Matthew J. Murphy III.

Assistant District Attorney Peter M. Wydysh said Loverdi had a gun in his pocket and friend Michael D. Ramos, 19, of Pine Avenue, had one in his waistband when officers collared them after they knocked on the door of an apartment that police were searching for drugs.

Ramos pleaded guilty Dec. 20 to attempted second-degree burglary and attempted second-degree criminal possession of a weapon. The former charge stemmed from the theft of long guns and jewelry from a 19th Street home Aug. 27 or 28, 2011.

Ramos is to receive five years in prison when he returns before Murphy March 14.
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Shooting suspect arraigned on drug and gun charges

January 4, 2013, 12:58 pm
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LOCKPORT – A Niagara Falls man, who is charged with shooting at a passing car in the city on June 27, was arraigned in Niagara County Court Friday on charges of having a sawed-off rifle and assorted drugs in his car when police arrested him in the shooting case.

Cornelius D. Porter, 19, of Fourth Street, pleaded not guilty to third-, fifth- and seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance and second-degree criminal possession of a weapon.

Assistant District Attorney Theresa L. Prezioso said charges of attempted first-degree assault and reckless endangerment are still pending against Porter in Niagara Falls City Court. He is accused of firing shots at a car containing a man and a woman, Prezioso said.

On Aug. 2, police pulled Porter’s car over to arrest him on a warrant in connection with the shooting. They allegedly found a sawed-off 9mm Luger rifle, more than half a gram of cocaine and the anti-anxiety drug alprazolam, better known by the brand name Xanax.
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One sentenced, two plead guilty in Niagara felony DWI cases

January 4, 2013, 1:03 pm
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LOCKPORT – One man avoided jail time on a felony driving while intoxicated charge Friday, while two other men pleaded guilty to that charge.

Christopher J. Ross, 32, of Wheatfield Street, North Tonawanda, drew five years’ probation and 30 days in the Niagara County work program from State Supreme Court Justice Richard C. Kloch Sr. Ross was arrested April 28 in North Tonawanda.

Richard E. Jaworski Jr., 40, of Orangeport Road, Hartland, pleaded guilty to felony DWI and was scheduled for sentencing by Kloch March 6. Jaworski was pulled over on Hartland Road in that town June 26.

James L. Mormino, 57, of James Drive, Lewiston, was scheduled for sentencing March 13 by County Judge Sara Sheldon Farkas after his felony DWI plea. Mormino was arrested July 10 in Niagara Falls.
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Amherst man refuses plea in 1990s sex case

January 4, 2013, 1:03 pm
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LOCKPORT – Paul S. Turley of Amherst rejected a plea offer Friday in Niagara County Court and was scheduled for trial Jan. 22 in connection with the alleged molestation of two girls between August 1996 and June 1998. Both of the alleged victims in the North Tonawanda incidents are now in their early 20s.

Turley, 47, of North Bailey Avenue, refused to plead guilty to the most serious count in the indictment, first-degree course of sexual conduct against a child, with a maximum 25-year prison sentence. He faces up to 39 years if convicted as charged.

State law defines a course of sexual conduct as a set of at least two sex acts with the same person under age 11 during a period of more than three months. Turley is charged with first- and second-degree courses, as well as first-degree sexual abuse for an alleged incident with one of the girls on Christmas Day 2003. A misdemeanor charge stemming from that incident has been dismissed.

In 2006, the State Legislature abolished the statute of limitations on many sex crimes, and for those in which the five-year felony time limit still applies, the clock doesn’t start running until the complainant turns 18.
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Traffic stop leads to multiple charges

January 4, 2013, 5:44 pm
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Tony Warner, 25, of Gelston Street, was charged with criminal possession of a hypodermic needle and traffic infractions, including driving with a suspended license, when he was stopped just before noon Friday on Niagara Street and West Ferry Street for allegedly failing to properly signal a lane change.

A check of his car revealed a hypodermic needle and a state computer check showed his license had been suspended on Dec. 7.

The needle was found “in plain view on the rear passenger side floorboard,” according to a police report, which said Warner’s license had been suspended four times in recent years.
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