NIAGARA COUNTY COURT
Sentencing for theft awaits other case
LOCKPORT — Sentencing for the theft of an all-terrain vehicle was postponed Thursday in Niagara County Court to give attorneys time to work out a plea deal for the same man in an attempted-murder case.
By the time all his cases here and in Erie County are wrapped up, Garrett General, 22, of Oshweken, Ont., may be serving as long as 18 years in prison.
He already has pleaded guilty here to attempted third-degree burglary and fourth-degree criminal possession of stolen property.
Those charges stemmed from a Sept. 2 ATV theft from Bob Weaver Motorsports on Niagara Falls Boulevard in Wheatfield and the subsequent police chase on the Tuscarora Indian Reservation of a pickup driven by General that had the ATV in the bed.
Assistant District Attorney Claudette S. Caldwell said General is charged with attempted murder for allegedly firing a shotgun at a Lewiston man May 30, striking him in the back of the neck.
Defense attorney James J. Faso said that a Class D felony plea has been offered in that case and that to give him and Caldwell time to work out the details, Judge Matthew
J. Murphy III allowed both matters to be postponed until Sept. 3.
Faso said the sentence on that plea, which would be a maximum of seven years in prison, would be added onto the sentence for the ATV case, which could be as long as four years.
On top of that, General is to be sentenced to another seven years Sept. 23 by Erie County Judge Shirley Troutman in a plea bargain that saw General admit to six felonies in a Dec. 14 Cheektowaga case.
Erie County Assistant District Attorney Justin Wallens said General pleaded guilty to stealingaCanadian woman’s sport utility vehicle from the parking lot of the Millennium Airport Hotel on Walden Avenue. He then drove to a nearby Rosa’s store, smashed a window and stole three flat-screen televisions.
Wallens said a 15-minute police chase of the SUV into Buffalo ensued and ended when General crashed at about 80 mph into another vehicle on Jefferson Avenue at the Kensington Expressway ramp. The other driver was hurt.
General pleaded guilty to second- degree burglary, third-degree grand larceny, second-degree criminal mischief and assault, first-degree reckless endangerment and third-degree criminal possession of stolen property.
Wallens said the May 30 shooting in Lewiston appears to have resulted from an argument over another allegedly stolen vehicle.
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