A Buffalo man convicted last summer of attempted contempt for trying to violate a court order of protection directing him to stay away from his girlfriend was convicted this week of breaking into her apartment.
Jerome Ingram, 34, was found guilty of second-degree burglary but acquitted of weapon possession by a State Supreme Court jury following a seven-day trial before Justice Deborah Haendiges, according to Erie County District Attorney Frank A Sedita III.
Prosecutors said Ingram got into an argument with his girlfriend on June 28, 2012, at her apartment. She asked him to leave, and he pretended to go, but hid in a room. She called a male friend and invited him over. When the friend arrived, Ingram attacked her, then fled when police were called, prosecutors said.
He re-entered the apartment through a window as police searched for him outside. Prosecutors said he pulled out a knife and threatened to kill his girlfriend and the other man. As police closed in, Ingram fled with the two victims’ cellphones. When his girlfriend went outside to summon police, Ingram attacked her again, repeatedly kicking her. After a foot chase with police, he was found hiding under bushes, with the knife and cellphones.
The girlfriend and her male friend initially refused to testify, after Facebook postings suggested retaliation if any witness testified, prosecutors said. They eventually agreed to testify, prosecutors said, but the jury rejected their testimony that Ingram was a welcomed guest.
Ingram faces up to 15 years in prison when Haendiges sentences him April 17. Sedita said Ingram is a second felony offender, citing his 2008 conviction and three-year prison sentence for criminal sale of a controlled substance.
email: jstaas@buffnews.com
Jerome Ingram, 34, was found guilty of second-degree burglary but acquitted of weapon possession by a State Supreme Court jury following a seven-day trial before Justice Deborah Haendiges, according to Erie County District Attorney Frank A Sedita III.
Prosecutors said Ingram got into an argument with his girlfriend on June 28, 2012, at her apartment. She asked him to leave, and he pretended to go, but hid in a room. She called a male friend and invited him over. When the friend arrived, Ingram attacked her, then fled when police were called, prosecutors said.
He re-entered the apartment through a window as police searched for him outside. Prosecutors said he pulled out a knife and threatened to kill his girlfriend and the other man. As police closed in, Ingram fled with the two victims’ cellphones. When his girlfriend went outside to summon police, Ingram attacked her again, repeatedly kicking her. After a foot chase with police, he was found hiding under bushes, with the knife and cellphones.
The girlfriend and her male friend initially refused to testify, after Facebook postings suggested retaliation if any witness testified, prosecutors said. They eventually agreed to testify, prosecutors said, but the jury rejected their testimony that Ingram was a welcomed guest.
Ingram faces up to 15 years in prison when Haendiges sentences him April 17. Sedita said Ingram is a second felony offender, citing his 2008 conviction and three-year prison sentence for criminal sale of a controlled substance.
email: jstaas@buffnews.com