LOCKPORT – After more than five hours of deliberation over two days, a Niagara County Court jury on Friday convicted a Lockport man of raping his best friend’s girlfriend almost two years ago.
Dalvan H. Robinson, 51, of Pennsylvania Avenue, was found guilty of first- and third-degree rape and first-degree sexual abuse. He faces up to 25 years in prison when he is sentenced July 31 by County Judge Sara Sheldon Farkas, who ordered him held without bail in the meantime.
Robinson was charged with attacking the 37-year-old woman in a home on South Street in Lockport in the early hours of July 30, 2011. Prosecutors Elizabeth R. Donatello and Cheryl L. Nichols said the woman was sleepy, groggy and ill after a night of bar-hopping. Defense attorney George V.C. Muscato argued unsuccessfully that the sex was consensual and the woman’s story was not believable.
The jury of eight men and four women got the case during the noon hour Thursday and worked until 4:30 p.m. They resumed deliberations at 9:15 a.m. Friday and produced a verdict after about an hour.
In another sex case Friday, County Judge Matthew J. Murphy III accepted a guilty plea from Derrick J. Houser of Niagara Falls, who already was awaiting sentencing on three other felonies.
Murphy agreed to give Houser no more than six years in prison on his latest plea, to attempted second-degree criminal sexual act, but he could add as many as four years for each of the other felonies: two counts of failing to register as a sex offender and one count of violating probation on a conviction for attempted first-degree sexual abuse. Thus, Houser could be sentenced to as long as 18 years behind bars.
Houser, 27, of Cedar Avenue, admitted having oral sex with a 14-year-old girl in late February or early March 2012.
He had pleaded guilty to two counts of failing to register because he temporarily moved to Detroit in June 2012 without telling Falls police, and also because he failed to disclose a Facebook account to state authorities. The sexual abuse charge, involving a girl under age 15, dates from 2009.
Back in Farkas’ courtroom, Michael D. Agee, 20, of Niagara Falls, was sentenced to five years in prison and three years’ post-release supervision for shooting a man who was sitting in a parked car.
The sentence was added to a 12-year term Farkas previously imposed on Agee for two armed robberies.
Assistant District Attorney Theresa L. Prezioso said the shooting victim, Lafayette Lewis, was in a car in front of his mother’s house on Eighth Street in the Falls on July 14 when Agee, who knew Lewis, walked up and shot him in the arm.
Also Friday, Amanda M. Henry, 27, of Ferry Avenue in the Falls, pleaded guilty to stabbing two men July 7 on that street.
Henry admitted to second-degree assault and faces up to seven years in prison when Farkas sentences her July 12. The judge reduced her bail from $50,000 to $10,000 because Henry has an 11-year-old daughter, and Assistant Public Defender Michele G. Bergevin said Henry is unlikely to flee.
Bergevin said Henry was intoxicated when she attacked the men on her birthday. Prezioso said Henry started a verbal altercation with them.
email: tprohaska@buffnews.com
Dalvan H. Robinson, 51, of Pennsylvania Avenue, was found guilty of first- and third-degree rape and first-degree sexual abuse. He faces up to 25 years in prison when he is sentenced July 31 by County Judge Sara Sheldon Farkas, who ordered him held without bail in the meantime.
Robinson was charged with attacking the 37-year-old woman in a home on South Street in Lockport in the early hours of July 30, 2011. Prosecutors Elizabeth R. Donatello and Cheryl L. Nichols said the woman was sleepy, groggy and ill after a night of bar-hopping. Defense attorney George V.C. Muscato argued unsuccessfully that the sex was consensual and the woman’s story was not believable.
The jury of eight men and four women got the case during the noon hour Thursday and worked until 4:30 p.m. They resumed deliberations at 9:15 a.m. Friday and produced a verdict after about an hour.
In another sex case Friday, County Judge Matthew J. Murphy III accepted a guilty plea from Derrick J. Houser of Niagara Falls, who already was awaiting sentencing on three other felonies.
Murphy agreed to give Houser no more than six years in prison on his latest plea, to attempted second-degree criminal sexual act, but he could add as many as four years for each of the other felonies: two counts of failing to register as a sex offender and one count of violating probation on a conviction for attempted first-degree sexual abuse. Thus, Houser could be sentenced to as long as 18 years behind bars.
Houser, 27, of Cedar Avenue, admitted having oral sex with a 14-year-old girl in late February or early March 2012.
He had pleaded guilty to two counts of failing to register because he temporarily moved to Detroit in June 2012 without telling Falls police, and also because he failed to disclose a Facebook account to state authorities. The sexual abuse charge, involving a girl under age 15, dates from 2009.
Back in Farkas’ courtroom, Michael D. Agee, 20, of Niagara Falls, was sentenced to five years in prison and three years’ post-release supervision for shooting a man who was sitting in a parked car.
The sentence was added to a 12-year term Farkas previously imposed on Agee for two armed robberies.
Assistant District Attorney Theresa L. Prezioso said the shooting victim, Lafayette Lewis, was in a car in front of his mother’s house on Eighth Street in the Falls on July 14 when Agee, who knew Lewis, walked up and shot him in the arm.
Also Friday, Amanda M. Henry, 27, of Ferry Avenue in the Falls, pleaded guilty to stabbing two men July 7 on that street.
Henry admitted to second-degree assault and faces up to seven years in prison when Farkas sentences her July 12. The judge reduced her bail from $50,000 to $10,000 because Henry has an 11-year-old daughter, and Assistant Public Defender Michele G. Bergevin said Henry is unlikely to flee.
Bergevin said Henry was intoxicated when she attacked the men on her birthday. Prezioso said Henry started a verbal altercation with them.
email: tprohaska@buffnews.com