Results tagged “sentence”

Last year, a private sanitation truck driver had an epileptic seizure and fatally struck a British couple in Midtown and, yesterday, he was sentenced to 20 years to life. The Daily News reports that State Supreme Court Justice Richard Carruthers pointed out that Auvryn Scarlett "stopped taking his epilepsy medicine because it interfered with his boozing" and said the 54-year-old was a "time bomb." Scarlett, who had been found guilty of the murder, also never told his employer he had seizures; he said, "I'm very sorry for what took place." The children of one of the victims had written to the court, "There are lots of things that we will never get to share with our mum. She will never witness her only daughter one day walk down the aisle."

Kari Ferrell, better known as the Hipster Grifter, will be out of jail in 9 months, according to Animal, who contacted the Salt Lake City Correctional Facility.

Norman Hsu, who helped raise millions for Democrats like Hillary Clinton, was sentenced to 24 years "for bilking hundreds of investors of millions of dollars in a nationwide Ponzi scheme and committing campaign finance fraud." The scam: "[Using] his squeaky-clean reputation to bilk investors in his Ponzi scheme out of $50 million to $100 million, claiming they could see returns of 14% to 20% on clothing and high-technology ventures." The judge who sentenced him said that Hsu's actions "strike at the very core of our democracy." The 58-year-old, who plans to appeal, said, "I made a huge mistake, a terrible mistake."

Marc Dreier, the once high-flying lawyer with hundreds of employees and celebrity friends, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for his $700 million scam to "issue and sell fictitious promissory notes purportedly issued by companies in the United States and Canada." He pleaded guilty to duping investors out of $400 million in May and said in a letter to the judge, prior to his sentencing, "I have lost all my friends. I have lost my law firm, my law license and all that I ever owned. I have seen my family suffer the unimaginable. I have lost my past and my future. I have lost everything a man can lose. And now I will lose my freedom as well, and rightly so."

So, Bernard Madoff, the man behind the $65 billion Ponzi scheme, is headed to a federal prison in Butner, N.C.—according to unnamed prison officials—but he's currently in Georgia. Bloomberg News has the best angle: "Conman Bernard Madoff was moved to the U.S. Penitentiary in Atlanta, the same facility where Charles Ponzi was incarcerated, to begin serving his 150-year sentence." The prison has medium-security detention center for "holdover inmates" in transit. It's unclear when Madoff will head to N.C., but the AP listed his famous future fellow inmates: Adelphia Communications' John Rigas and his son, Tim who were "convicted on multiple charges of securities fraud, conspiracy to commit bank fraud and bank fraud," Jonathan Pollard, the American convicted of spying for Israel more than two decades ago," and "Omar Abdel-Rahman, also known as the blind sheik, who was sentenced to life in prison in 1995 for his role in a plot to kill Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and blow up New York City landmarks, including the United Nations." You can keep tabs on Madoff's whereabouts by using the Bureau of Prisons inmate locator—it lists his release date as "11-14-2139."

Bernard Madoff's epic Ponzi scheme, which is still be investigated by federal prosecutors and securities regulators, has resulted in far more claims from victims than expected. 8,800 claims had been filed by victims by the start of last month, but the finally tally of claims is actually 15,400, according to an interim report [pdf] filed yesterday by the trustee overseeing the liquidation of Madoff’s estate. The trustee tells the Times he's "unearthed a labyrinth of international funds, institutions and entities of almost unparalleled complexity." The claims include 258 applications to the trustee’s hardship program, which is supposed to fast-track reimbursement to victims who are elderly, bankrupt, or unable to pay for basic living expenses or medical needs. (152 of those claims have been approved.) Meanwhile, Madoff's lawyers have announced that he won't appeal the 150-year sentence, which means he'll almost certainly die behind bars. But every six months he can look forward to a big shipment of letters from his irate victims; the website Madoff Mail is now accepting hate mail and e-mail, and promises to deliver them to the phony financier twice a year.

A judge today sentenced 41-year-old bouncer Darryl Littlejohn to life in prison without parole after being convicted last month of the rape and murder of graduate student Imette St. Guillen. Littlejohn did not speak on his own behalf and NY1 says he showed no visible sign of remorse. Defense attorneys say they plan to appeal after trying to peg the murder on Danny Dorian, the manager of the club Littlejohn met and left with St. Guillen from. Today the judge "chastised workers of (The Falls) and asked how they could show such indifference." Before the sentence, St. Guillen's mother read a letter from her daughter about her life in New York and her sister told the court, "I understand there is no punishment that will bring Imette back and that is why there is never closure." Littlejohn will serve the sentence consecutively along with 25 years he received for another kidnapping and assault of a Queens woman.

Federal prosecutors are still looking to make examples out of swindlers. After successfully nailing Bernard Madoff for 150 years, now they are seeking 145 years for Marc Dreier, a once prominent lawyer who pleaded guilty to a $700 million scam involving fake promissory notes. The feds pointed out, "This defendant, an officer of the court, engaged in a more than $740 million series of frauds over a seven-year period largely to finance a personal life of extraordinary lavishness," and that his investors lost $400 million. Dreier's defense lawyer, however, is hoping to get his 59-year-old client 12 1/2 years, "In seeking some measure of leniency we appeal not to sympathy but to reason. As colossal frauds capture national headlines, sentences for white-collar offenders must not become disproportionately long." CityRoom has Dreier's letter to the judge, which includes, "I have lost all my friends. I have lost my law firm, my law license and all that I ever owned. I have seen my family suffer the unimaginable. I have lost my past and my future. I have lost everything a man can lose. And now I will lose my freedom as well, and rightly so."

With Bernard Madoff's downfall, there's some mirth. Last night, the Daily Show took the "150 Years of Solitude" route and examined the disgraced financier's sentence...and the latest scheme he's apparently running at the MCC—a Ponzi handjob scheme.

Maurice Parks, the subway conductor who sought revenge after being mugged but ended up killing an innocent bystander, was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison. Parks had been stabbed by a group of men in Harlem in January 2008; he came across a man he thought was one of his attackers, chased him 200 feet and stabbed him multiple times. Though his lawyer tried to argue he was under duress, Parks was found guilty last month.

Sure, multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme mastermind Bernard Madoff knew what he was doing was wrong, but he really doesn't want to face up to 150 years in prison. Today, Ira Sorkin, a lawyer for the 71-year-old disgraced financier, told U.S. District Judge Denny that a 12-year sentence would be sufficient, noting that Madoff's life expectancy is only another 12.6 years and that Madoff "will speak to the shame he has felt and to the pain he has caused." Sorkin added, "The significant anger and resentment evidence in the victims' words is no doubt justified in light of the circumstances of this case. Thankfully, none of the fury expressed in the victim statements has been as shocking as the death threats and anti-Semitic e-mails that have been directed toward Mr. Madoff and his counsel." Chin is scheduled to sentence Madoff next Monday,

A Staten Island man will spend nearly six years (69 months) in prison for selling a satellite TV package to New York customers that included the Hezbollah television channel Al Manar (pictured), which the feds call "a terrorist organization masquerading as a TV channel." In December, Javed Iqbal, who emigrated to the U.S. from Pakistan as a teenager, agreed to a plea deal to settle the case, which could have landed him in prison for up to 15 years. At yesterday's sentencing, he said he was "deeply sorry" for what he calls a mistake, and his lawyer tells the Times the channel was just one "narrow aspect" of a TV package that was "180 degrees from Islamic fundamentalism." But federal prosecutor Eric Snyder called Iqbal "Hezbollah’s man in New York City. He did all this to bring the Hezbollah operations to our shores, to allow Hezbollah to have their operations here in New York City. That’s a very dangerous thing." The NYCLU had defended Iqbal on First Amdendment grounds, and the trial highlights the ongoing debate over how far the government can go in coping with terrorism: Is this censorship, or just keeping America safe?

Kenny Alexis, who was convicted attempted murder after stabbing four people in a 13-hour period in 2006, was sentenced to 34 years in prison yesterday. Prosecutors had asked for 75 years, but his defense asked the judge to consider Alexis's medical history—Alexis is schizophrenic and had spent time in a mental facility. Alexis first stabbed a tourist from Texas on a downtown C train; then he stabbed a man at the Rockefeller Plaza subway platform. His final two victims were Canadian tourists sitting on a traffic island in Times Square. The judge said it was amazing no one died and that these random attacks "are the scariest types of crimes that we see."

Mark Brener, the 63-year-old whose Emperors Club VIP prostitution ring helped bring down former governor Eliot Spitzer, wants some leniency when he's sentenced by the feds on Friday, but the Daily News reports prosecutors aren't impressed with his pleas. Brener "cites the death of his wife and the anti-Semitism he suffered as a kid as reasons he should catch a break," but Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Stein wrote in court papers, "Brener is not alone in having suffered discrimination. Similarly, while the death of his first wife, to whom he appears to have been truly devoted, is certainly sad, it hardly seems to be a circumstance that would inevitably lead to a life devoted to crime." The feds think Brener should be in prison for at least 2 years. His 24-year-old ex-girlfriend, Cecil Suwal (pictured, with Brener), who helped him run the operation, was sentenced to 6 months last week.

Queens Supreme Court Judge Gregory Lasak called Darryl Littlejohn a "typical, classic sociopath," and told him, "You act one way here and another way on the street. That makes you a very dangerous man," ultimately sentencing him to 25 years to life in prison. Littlejohn, who is awaiting trial for the 2006 murder of John Jay graduate student Imette St. Guillen, was found guilty for the 2005 kidnapping of a young woman. Lasak said of the crime, "It was every little girl's nightmare in this city. It was every parent's nightmare - walking home from York College and winding up on the floor of a van." Littlejohn's attorney said his client was, in fact, a victim, since his name was already associated with the St. Guillen murder.

Stephen Sakai, who was convicted of shooting four Chelsea clubgoers, killing one, was sentenced to 90 years to life yesterday. Sakai had claimed he shot the clubgoers in self-defense, but Manhattan Assistant D.A> Joan Illuzzi Orbon told the judge that Sakai (who was already found guilty of two Brooklyn murders and sentenced to 50 years to life) "needs to be in prison for the rest of his life so society can be safe from one more random sicko." One of his victims, Julian Quadros, who is now paralyzed from the shooting outside Opus 22 where Sakai worked and whose brother Gustavo was killed in the shooting, said, "He's a coward ... What he did to my brother - you have to be a coward to not be able to face somebody, to shoot somebody in the back of the head for no reason." Sakai's lawyer said she would appeal the verdict.

So how many years should a police officer spend in jail for sodomizing a handcuffed suspect with a broomstick? Justin Volpe, the cop who was convicted of torturing Haitian immigrant Abner Louima in a Brooklyn precinct in 1997 and who has been behind bars in a federal prison for nearly 12 years without any chance of parole, is petitioning the Justice Department for a reduced sentence. He's currently sentenced to 30 years, but letters from family, friends, and a priest pleading for leniency have been sent with his petition. (In 2004, GQ tagged along with Volpe's father, a retired NYPD cop, during depressing visits with his son.)

A month after a jury found Cesar Rodriguez guilty of manslaughter in the brutal death of his 7-year-old stepdaughter NIxzmary Brown, a judge sentenced him to the maximum allowed, 26 /12 years to 29 years in jail. He told the court, "I loved Nixzmary...I can honestly say that I’m being accused of something I did not do...but I will take responsibility."