FROM: HOLLEY CARNRIGHT
DATE: AUGUST 24, 2016
RE: PRESS RELEASE – LEON SMITH
Leon Smith pled guilty before the Hon. Donald A. Williams to Criminal Sale of a Controlled Substance in the third degree in Ulster County Court on August 23, 2016. Smith was first charged, by Indictment Number 183-13, with Criminal Sale of a Controlled Substance in November of 2013. Taking into account his criminal history, Smith was offered, by the court, a sentence of 8 years with 3 years post release supervision in return for a plea, which offer he rejected. The following May, Smith went to trial and was convicted of two counts of Criminal Sale of a Controlled Substance and was sentenced to 10 years in state prison.
In April of this year the Appellate Division reversed Smith’s conviction on the grounds that he did not have effective representation at trial and the case was placed back on the County Court trial calendar.
Smith is scheduled to be sentenced on his new plea on October 27, 2016.