Mastermind gets 10-year term in hijacking of van delivering drugs
Lemuele T. Jackson, who helped mastermind the hijacking of a van delivering prescription drugs, was sentenced Monday to 10 years in state prison by a judge who described him as a “coward.”
Jackson, 39, has been jailed since his arrest in his Wende Street home 12 days after the Dec. 17 heist. He told Erie County Judge Sheila A. DiTullio that he wanted to apologize to the 26-year-old driver of the DHL van that he and two of his three cohorts hijacked on Duke Road in Cheektowaga.
Though John R. Nuchereno, Jackson’s attorney, said his client is extremely remorseful, Di- Tullio denounced Jackson for terrorizing the driver, who still suffers hand injuries from being tied up after he was knocked out.
Last Wednesday, the judge sentenced Eric Rowsey, 20, of Westminster Avenue, to eight years and Jason Preston, 27, of Hayden Street, to seven years on their kidnapping pleas in the case.
On Jan. 7, she is scheduled to sentence Aaron L. Ruffins, the former DHL supervisor who helped Jackson plan the hijacking on the route that Ruffins once drove. Ruffins, 44, of La- Salle Avenue, was arrested Nov. 18 after he belatedly pleaded guilty to a second-degree robbery charge for his role in planning the heist.
Prosecutor Max Humann said Ruffins had taught the victimized driver the route on which prescription drugs were delivered to various Buffaloarea drug stores. Ruffins, who now faces a prison term of 3z to seven years, was paid off by Jackson shortly after the crime, Humann said.
Jackson, accompanied by Rowsey and Preston, rammed the DHL delivery truck at about 9 p. m. on a secluded portion of Duke Road after it had left a DHL warehouse en route to pharmacies to deliver prescription drugs with an estimated street-sale value of about $500,000.
Humann said that after the three rammed the van, Jackson knocked out the driver, handcuffed him and drove him in the van to Jackson’s home where he, Rowsey and Preston unloaded the drugs.
The three then drove the van, with the still-unconscious driver, to Schiller Park. The driver called police after regaining consciousness, the prosecutor said.
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