LOCKPORT – Niagara County Judge Sara Sheldon Farkas decided Friday not to send a Buffalo drug dealer to prison because his wife would be left to care for four children, two of them autistic.
Aaron R. Ware, 36, of Gorton Street, was placed on six months of interim probation for his guilty plea to a reduced charge of attempted third-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance. He sold $1,400 worth of cocaine, about 1.5 ounces, to a police informant May 2 in North Tonawanda.
“He should go to state prison, but I’d be giving [his wife] a life sentence,” Farkas said. Prison is still a possibility if Ware performs poorly on probation. He is to return to Farkas’ court Aug. 6 for a final sentence, and must perform 100 hours of community service in the meantime.
Ware’s criminal resume includes a 1995 first-degree manslaughter conviction for accompanying a 14-year-old who shot and killed a man in Buffalo in November 1994.
Aaron R. Ware, 36, of Gorton Street, was placed on six months of interim probation for his guilty plea to a reduced charge of attempted third-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance. He sold $1,400 worth of cocaine, about 1.5 ounces, to a police informant May 2 in North Tonawanda.
“He should go to state prison, but I’d be giving [his wife] a life sentence,” Farkas said. Prison is still a possibility if Ware performs poorly on probation. He is to return to Farkas’ court Aug. 6 for a final sentence, and must perform 100 hours of community service in the meantime.
Ware’s criminal resume includes a 1995 first-degree manslaughter conviction for accompanying a 14-year-old who shot and killed a man in Buffalo in November 1994.