Results tagged “robertellis”

Yesterday, a judge sentenced Robert Ellis, who was acquitted last month in the 2007 murder of police officer Russel Timoshenko, to 15 years for weapons possession. Timoshenko was fatally shot when he and his partner stopped Ellis and two other men in a stolen car; jury did find Ellis guilty of the lesser weapons charge, while another jury found his friend Dexter Bostic guilty of murder and a mistral was called for third suspect Lee Woods. Timoshenko's mother had asked the judge to impose a 45-year sentence, noting, "For me and my family, only the death penalty would be justice for Russel. Unfortunately for me, the death penalty is not an option.

Yesterday, juries in two separate cop killing cases came back with news that left the victims' families upset: Lee Woods, on trial for killing police officer Russel Timoshenko during a traffic stop, was granted a mistrial because one juror was ill while Lillo Brancato Jr., on trial for killing off-duty police officer Daniel Enchautegui, was found not guilty of murder.

Mayor Bloomberg couldn't help but comment on the acquittal of Robert Ellis, who was on trial for the fatal shooting of police officer Russel Timoshenko (pictured). The Mayor said, "I don't want to criticize, but... inside I feel very strongly about it. There's something wrong here. A police officer [was] dedicating his life to protecting all of us. I found it very hard to understand how they could come up with the decision that they made." The Daily News' Errol Louis writes, "The jury's mind-boggling hair-splitting makes no sense." —Ellis was found guilty of weapons possession, yet not murder— "Some went overboard in venting their rage, like Patrolmen's Benevolent Association President Pat Lynch, who referred to Ellis as a 'mongrel' after the verdict - an unfortunate display of the same dehumanizing impulse that leads criminals to fire on cops. The challenge for cops, activists, union bosses and the media is to resist the urge to let a single injustice define us."

A jury acquitted a man of aggravated murder in the killing a police officer during a June 2007 traffic stop. The jury also found Robert Ellis not guilty of attempted murder (another cop was wounded) but he was found guilty on three counts of criminal possession of a weapon.

In an extremely embarrassing incident for the Brooklyn DA's office, an audio technician taped over a statement made by a cop killer while in custody. The DA's office will now have to rely on a detective's notes taken during that statement and the videotape recorded during a follow-up interview with suspect Robert Ellis.