DA's Office Year In Review

The Erie County District Attorney's Office had a busy and successful year for criminal prosecutions. Most notably maybe the fact that of the 2,991 criminal cases that were listed for trials in the Court of Common Pleas, 2,867 were resolved before actual trial. This fact indicates that state and local police officers and departments did a very good job investigating reported incidents and gathering the evidence need to convict the defendant. Defense attorneys were willing to accept plea deals to help their clients hedge against more severe sanctions that may be given by a sentencing judge after a guilty verdict at trial.

County Detective Donald Knepper is responsible for facilitating the criminal court term for the District Attorney's Office and prepared the attached summary of 2011 activities.


2011 YEAR END SUMMARY

The information in this report does not track all of the successful prosecution outcomes. Of the approximately 3,300 new cases assigned to our office for a resolution in the Court of Common Pleas, there is no mention of the cases that are granted : Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition, Treatment Court, Probation Without Verdict, Plea immediately following arraignment, or Nolle prosequi (case dropped by the District Attorney's Office).

Many cases are never assigned to a trial term because they are resolved shortly after they are arraigned. About 95% of the cases that survive to get to a trial term, are resolved prior to going to trial.
For all of the Arraignments in 2011, 944 cases out of 3240 ( 29.1% ) were DUI's. After factoring in the cases ( 293 ) charged & prosecuted by the Attorney General's Office, DUI's accounted for 32.0 % of all the cases coming into the D.A.'s Office.


2011 CASES OF NOTE

JANUARY:
Shannon Crosby, Dante Husband, Julian Simmons: Home Invasion Robbery. Attempted Homicide. Aggravated Assault. Burglary. Conspiracy.
Victim Mario Luchetti was severely beaten and his safe with $80k was taken. Julian Simmon
Confessed. Simmons was sentenced to 6-13 years.

FEBRUARY:
Donald Howard: HOMICIDE. Killed his friend in Union City and then stole a fake $1 million dollar bill and tried to buy crack in Erie. Guilty of 2nd Degree Murder.

Charles Gambill: HOMICIDE. Killed Tayron Cargile by shooting him after directing him via cell phone to a drug deal. PLED to Voluntary Manslaughter.

Larry Lemon: HOMICIDE. Gunned down Steve Arrington in a parking lot on Buffalo Road. Arrington was shot 5 times. Shooter was 17; victim 19. PLED to 3rd Degree Murder

MARCH:
Four murder defendants PLED.
Brandon Barnes & Stephen Carter: This was a robbery gone very wrong. Josh Thompson gave these two a ride and was shot near 23rd & East Ave. Barnes was sitting behind Thompson and pulled trigger. Barnes PLED to the Homicide. Carter PLED to Robbery.

Aaron Noyer: Homicide. Kidnapping. Rape of a Child. Noyer snatched infant Elizabeth Neimic from her crib, brutally raped her, and threw her away along some rail road tracks. His mental capacity, or lack thereof, prevented the Death Penalty from being sought. PLED to 2nd Degree Murder.

Mark Warner: Homicide. Warner shot his girlfriend, Crystal Finch in their driveway on W. 17th St. through the vehicle. PLED to Involuntary Manslaughter.

APRIL:
DUI/Simple Assault/Retail Thefts Trials This Month.
Only 4 Simple Assault jury verdicts in April. 2 GAC. 2 NG.


MAY:
Chikuyo Bayette: . 15 year old robber. Sentenced up to 10 years in the SCI System.

Howard Howell: Solicitation - Homicide. While in SCI Albion, this guy tried to get somebody to kill his ex-wife. This is the second time the defendant tried this. He was convicted both times. He got 10-20 years added to his state sentence.

JUNE :
Jeffrey Norris: Homicide. Mindy Acosta was beaten to death and left at a ball field at 2nd & Penna. She had also been sexual assaulted. The big break came 5 years later when DNA was matched to an inmate in an Ohio prison. He also made statements that implicated himself in this brutal murder. Guilty of 1st Degree Murder & Rape.

JULY:
Terrance Fowler: Attempted Homicide. Robbery. Fowler shot Alex Cheremykh in the head when he tried to rob Alex Cher's jewelry store on Peach Street. Guilty. Sentenced to 17 ½ - 35 years.

Dionne Jordan: Robbery. Robbery of the State Liquor Store in the Liberty Plaza. Guilty. Sentenced to 4 1/2 to 9.

AUGUST:
Nicholas Kaufman. Possession With Intent To Deliver a Controlled Substance. Guilty.

SEPTEMBER:
Charles Trojanovich: Kidnapping. Rape. This jury found him guilty of Terroristic Threats and Harassment. Jury was hung on: Kidnap, Rape, Sexual Assault and Simple Assault. The case will be retried in January 2012.


OCTOBER:
DUI/Simple Assault term.


NOVEMBER:
Christa Logue: Homicide by Vehicle / DUI. PLED. Victim was Josh Gibson, her son.

David DeHaven: Homicide by Vehicle / DUI. PLED. Victim was Brandon Nicosia. Nicosia just graduated from Girard H.S. earlier that evening and was riding with DeHaven. The celebration turned tragic when DeHaven lost control and crashed his vehicle.

Eugene Metzger: Homicide by Vehicle / DUI. Guilty. Magen Clowser was killed instantly when the motorcycle she was the passenger on crashed with Metzger's SUV. To compound this tragedy, the cycle's driver - Jamie Wilt - killed himself a few months later.

Anthony Morrow: Attempted Homicide. Guilty. Louis Williams was shot at the Last Stop at 18th & Raspberry on New Year's Eve. Williams was shot in his only kidney.


DECEMBER:
4 Trials w/o jury. Two were guilty, one plead, and the other case was dropped.

This report concerns itself only with trial terms and those outcomes. It does not address how hard everyone in the District Attorney's Office works. Everything is geared to getting the right result in every criminal case that makes its way into the District Attorney's Office. Every morning, trial term or not, the District Attorney's Office is well represented in the Court Rooms with prosecutors who have been prepared with the help of all non-attorney staff. It would be impossible to keep stats on the fine work that is done day in and day out by everyone.

Trial Summary 2011

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