PRESS RELEASE
FROM: HOLLEY CARNRIGHT, DISTRICT ATTORNEY
DATE: NOVEMBER 30, 2017
The
Appellate Division, Third Department has unanimously affirmed the October, 2014
conviction of Stephen Brooks, a/k/a “Lay Low,” upon a jury verdict convicting
him of the crimes of criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third
degree, two counts, and criminal possession of a controlled substance in the
third degree, two counts, class B felonies.
Defendant’s
conviction stems from two separate drug sales which occurred on November 9,
2013. On that date, the defendant, using
a confidential informant as a go between, sold crack cocaine to a Kingston
Police officer. The confidential
informant facilitated the sales by ferrying the drugs and buy money between
adjoining hotel rooms with defendant in one room and police officers in the
other. The defendant was arrested
following the second sale.
The
defendant, a second felony offender with a prior violent felony conviction, was
sentenced by County Court Judge Donald A. Williams to concurrent 13 year State
prison terms on each count followed by three years of postrelease supervision.
On
appeal, defendant challenged the Court’s Molineux ruling which allowed
the People to introduce evidence that the confidential informant had made drug
sales on his behalf in 2005 and 2013. He also argued that the Court erred in
refusing to disqualify the District Attorney’s Office, and he argued that he
was subjected to an illegal warrantless arrest in the hotel room where he had a
legitimate expectation of privacy. The Appellate
Division, Third Department, however, rejected each of these claims.
On
appeal, the defendant is represented by Marshall Nadan, Esq. of Kingston, New
York. Assistant District Attorney Joan
Gudesblatt Lamb, Esq. handled the appeal for the District Attorney’s Office.
