Suspect charged in Lockport hit-run fatality

Police cite dispute over marijuana sale

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LOCKPORT — City police took two suspects into custody and charged one of them Wednesday in a fatal hit-and-run crash Tuesday afternoon.

Capt. Richard Podgers, chief of detectives, said the incident appears to be intentional and involved a dispute over marijuana sales.

Anthony J. S. Cescon, 17, of Ohio Street, a Lockport High School junior, has been charged at this point with leaving the scene of an accident where a person injured dies, a felony.

Podgers said he expects the case to be presented to a Niagara County grand jury and that more charges will be leveled.

A second suspect has cooperated with police and has not yet been charged, Podgers said, adding that could happen today.

Adam Mottorn, 17, of Porter Street, was struck at about 4 p. m. Tuesday, not far from where he lived, and pronounced dead a short time later in Erie County Medical Center.

Police found the Chevrolet S-10 pickup that struck him late Tuesday on West Avenue and took Cescon and another suspect into custody.

Cescon was the driver of the pickup, Podgers said.

“This is not a [typical] hit-and-run right now,” he said. “It rises to a different level. It’s elevated to a robbery and possibly a felony murder.”

Police believe Cescon struck Mottorn intentionally because he and his passenger didn’t have money to buy marijuana that Mottorn was selling.

“In their flight to leave, he was hit,” Podgers said.

Detectives on Wednesday were still trying to unravel what happened. Witnesses told police the driver intentionally ran into Mottorn, also a junior at Lockport High School. The suspects said it was accidental, Podgers said.

Some of Mottorn’s family members and friends attended a Wednesday morning news conference about the hit-and-run. Cathie White, also of Lockport, said she was like a grandmother to the teen. He was “an exceptionally good child” who enjoyed fishing and hunting, she said.

She and others close to Mottorn said they were shocked to learn the teen may have been involved in drugs.

“He did not take drugs,” White said. “The ones who hit him are trying to make him look like he’s involved so they don’t get charged with manslaughter. He was not just run over. He was crushed.”

During his arraignment Wednesday afternoon, Cescon pleaded not guilty to the charge against him and was ordered held on $25,000 bond or $50,000 cash bail. A pretrial felony hearing was set for Dec. 2.

Police Lt. Scott Seekins said police didn’t want to paint Mottorn as a drug dealer, but he did describe what happened before the crash as a “transaction that went bad.”

“It’s just too easy for kids to get their hands on drugs. There’s just too much out there,” Seekins said.

High School Principal Frank Movalli said the school community was “overwhelmed with the loss of Adam” and that grief counselors were brought in Wednesday.

Mottorn was taking auto mechanics at Orleans-Niagara BOCES and worked at a local car shop, Movalli said. He also enjoyed skateboarding and his dirt bike.

Survivors include his mother, Tammie; father, Douglas; older sister, Stephanie; and younger brother, Tyler; as well as all of his grandparents. A service will be at 10 a. m. Friday in Faith Tabernacle Church, 5676 Beattie Ave.

nfischer@buffnews.com

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