The Appellate Division, Third Department has unanimously affirmed the February, 2015 conviction of Malcolm Jemmott upon a jury verdict convicting him of the crimes of criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree and criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree.
Defendant’s conviction stems from an incident which occurred in the City of Kingston in September, 2010 when defendant threatened the victim, Danita Brocious, with a loaded Glock .40 caliber handgun. After this event was reported to the police, the gun was seized from a minivan parked nearby.
Following his conviction, the defendant was sentenced by County Court Judge Donald A. Williams to a determinate State prison term of 15 years followed by five years of postrelease supervision on his criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree conviction and to concurrent indeterminate terms of three and one-half to seven years on his criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree convictions.
On appeal, defendant initially claimed that County Court erred in failing to suppress photos of a gun which were found in his cellphone pursuant to a warrant issued by a Judge in the Kingston City Court. While the Appellate Division agreed, the Court concluded that such error was harmless in light of the overwhelming proof linking defendant to the gun seized from the vehicle. Although the defendant also maintained that the verdict was against the weight of the evidence, that County Court should have allowed his attorney to cross examine the lead detective about a purported prior arrest and that the sentence imposed was unduly harsh and excessive, these additional claims were rejected by the Court.
On appeal, the defendant is represented by John Ferrara, Esq. of Monticello, New York. Assistant District Attorney Joan Gudesblatt Lamb, Esq. handled the appeal for the District Attorney’s Office.