PRESS RELEASE
FROM: HOLLEY CARNRIGHT, DISTRICT ATTORNEY
DATE: NOVEMBER 30, 2017
The Appellate Division, Third Department has unanimously affirmed the October, 2014 conviction of Stephen Brooks, a/k/a “Lay Low,” upon a jury verdict convicting him of the crimes of criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree, two counts, and criminal possession of a controlled substance in the third degree, two counts, class B felonies.
Defendant’s conviction stems from two separate drug sales which occurred on November 9, 2013. On that date, the defendant, using a confidential informant as a go between, sold crack cocaine to a Kingston Police officer. The confidential informant facilitated the sales by ferrying the drugs and buy money between adjoining hotel rooms with defendant in one room and police officers in the other. The defendant was arrested following the second sale.
The defendant, a second felony offender with a prior violent felony conviction, was sentenced by County Court Judge Donald A. Williams to concurrent 13 year State prison terms on each count followed by three years of postrelease supervision.
On appeal, defendant challenged the Court’s Molineux ruling which allowed the People to introduce evidence that the confidential informant had made drug sales on his behalf in 2005 and 2013. He also argued that the Court erred in refusing to disqualify the District Attorney’s Office, and he argued that he was subjected to an illegal warrantless arrest in the hotel room where he had a legitimate expectation of privacy. The Appellate Division, Third Department, however, rejected each of these claims.
On appeal, the defendant is represented by Marshall Nadan, Esq. of Kingston, New York. Assistant District Attorney Joan Gudesblatt Lamb, Esq. handled the appeal for the District Attorney’s Office.