PRESS RELEASE
TO: ALL NEWS MEDIA
FROM: HOLLEY CARNRIGHT
DATE: MARCH 13, 2014
The
Appellate Division, Third Department has today unanimously affirmed judgments
of conviction in the following cases:
People
v Eban Woullard:
Eban
Woullard was convicted in the Ulster County Court (Williams, J.) upon a plea of
guilty of the crime of robbery in the first degree, a class B violent felony,
on May 20, 2011. Defendant’s conviction
stems from an incident which occurred in Boiceville when he was 16 years of
age, during which he twice shot the victim while attempting to steal marijuana
from him. He was sentenced to 10 years
with five years of postrelease supervision.
On
appeal, defendant argued that his plea should be vacated because County Court
failed to consider affording him youthful offender status. The People argued that youthful offender
adjudication was neither appropriate nor legally available because, although
defendant was younger than 19 years of age when the crime was committed, he was
convicted of an armed felony. The Appellate Division affirmed the
conviction.
On
appeal, defendant is represented by James McGinn, Esq. of Delmar, New York. Assistant District Attorney Joan Gudesblatt
Lamb, Esq. handled the appeal for the District Attorney’s Office.
People
v Thomas W. Douglass, IV
Thomas
W. Douglass, IV was convicted in the Ulster County Court (Williams, J.) of the
crimes of insurance fraud in the third degree, a class D felony, and falsifying
business records in the first degree, a class E felony, on February 10, 2012
following a jury trial.
At
the time of the commission of these crimes Defendant was a police officer in
Orange County. The charges arose from an incident where defendant was returning
home from a picnic/bonfire at which time his pickup truck struck another
vehicle, occupied by four young women, from behind. The force of the collision
caused the victim’s vehicle to flip over and a rear passenger in the vehicle
suffered severe and permanent injuries. The defendant failed to stop and
subsequently filed a false insurance claim indicating that he had struck a
deer.
Responding
to the crash police were left with few clues to run to ground the perpetrator.
At the scene the police found pieces of a Toyota emblem. Working with the FBI and
the Ulster County District Attorney’s Office, they eventually were led to the
repair shop where defendant had taken his vehicle and where he had made his
false insurance claim.
Found
guilty by a jury of insurance fraud in the third degree and falsifying business
records in the first degree, defendant was subsequently sentenced by County
Court to concurrent State prison terms of one to three years.
On
appeal, in addition to claiming that the Court did not have geographical
jurisdiction over the offenses in question, defendant argued that County Court
failed to provide meaningful responses to the jury’s notes and improperly
considered the charge of leaving the scene of an accident, of which he was
acquitted, in determining his sentence.
All three of defendant’s claims were, however, rejected by the Appellate
Division, Third Department.
On
appeal, defendant is represented by Rory J. Bellantoni, Esq. of Scarsdale, New
York. Assistant District Attorneys
Danielle Scarduzio and Paul Derohannesian handled the appeal for the District
Attorney’s Office.
