A Manhattan judge hasn’t made it clear why she’s been keeping an accused murderer behind bars, so her lawyer went to court to have him released under New York’s bail reform laws – a move that one reviewer called it “madness”.
John Spry, 31, “waited” for his victim in the Feb. 1 shooting, prosecutors said, who called the killing a “planned execution” and sought to have the suspect discharged without bail, according to a transcript from the court.
Judge Ann Scherzer listened to prosecutors describe the allegations against Spry – who they say put a stolen license plate on his girlfriend’s car and drove from Queens to Washington homes in Manhattan to shoot Davantay Butts — and to his attorney, Michelle Villasenor-Grant, who pushed for his release.
But Scherzer sent Spry back to jail after the March hearing without an explanation, setting his next court date for May 3. Spry’s attorney now claims the judge’s decision was “an abuse of power” and violated the state’s bail reform law.
The judge made her decision without determining whether Spry was a ‘flight risk’, without considering ‘less restrictive alternatives’ such as electronic monitoring, and ‘without explaining her decision’, according to Villasenor-Grant in a court motion Manhattan Supreme asking for his client’s decision. Release.
“The court must explain its choice of release, conditional release, bond or remand on the record or in writing,” reads part of the bail reform law cited in the court filing.
The legal filing reflects “a steady and steady movement in the direction of ultimately holding no one accountable,” said Eugene O’Donnell of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. “It’s another step down the road to madness we’ve been on.”
“It’s crazy,” said former NYPD Detective Joseph Giacalone. “It shows you how much defense attorneys are playing with the system on this. … It’s just ridiculous the situation we find ourselves in now.
Spry faces 15 to 25 years in prison for second-degree murder. He was also charged with assault and weapons and pleaded not guilty.
He has “significant community ties”, including a one-year-old daughter, and should not be “submissive [to] the risk of serious injury, illness or death posed by incarceration at Rikers currently threatens,” the attorney alleges in court documents.
“This man is just not going to throw away and leave his baby and run away. He’s going to stay here and fight this case,” Villasenor-Grant said.
The shooting came amid a wave of violence in Harlem and a push to overhaul the state’s much-criticized bail reform law. Recent NYPD data showed a 37% increase in major crimes citywide.
It’s unclear what triggered the killing, but prosecutors say Spry followed Butts, 26, as the victim left around 11 a.m. with friends to buy shoes, waited for him to return from the store and walked through the street to shoot Butts in the back. in broad daylight.
One of the bullets hit a woman in the arm, records show. Spry allegedly continued shooting as Butts, a well-known member of the Broad Day Shooters gang, was on the ground, then ran to his idle car and drove back to Queens.
He has at least two felony convictions, including a drug possession case in which he was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison, and one for attempted criminal possession of a weapon in 2012, for which he was sentenced to two years in prison, and had his parole revoked in the past, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office told Scherzer, according to the transcript.
The attorney, who works for the Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem, argued in the lawsuit that bail should be set at $50,000 cash or $100,000 bail.
Spry’s bail request is unlikely to succeed, senior criminal defense attorneys said.
“The judge should have made a decision,” said attorney Ron Kuby, adding “but ultimately it won’t result in the release of the defendant, I predict.”
The seriousness of the charges and allegations will weigh more heavily in the minds of judges in such a case, said Kuby and longtime criminal lawyer Mark Bederow, who said the likelihood of Spry’s release “is next to zero.” .
But the case shows how “weak” the criminal justice system has become, Giacalone said.
“The bad guys are opportunists and they currently view New York’s criminal justice system as very weak. The fact that we are even discussing this shows how weak he has become,” he said.
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