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Office of the District Attorney P. David Soares
Witness Receives 5 Years for Robbing Pizza and Chinese Food Deliverymen ALBANY , NY – District Attorney P. David Soares today announced that VAHDEEM RICKS, 18, of Third Avenue, Albany, NY was sentenced to 2 concurrent sentences of 5 years in prison and 3 years of post-release supervision by the Honorable Thomas Breslin. On September 26, 2007, RICKS pled guilty to (2) counts of Attempted Robbery in the Second Degree, a Class “D” Violent Felony. These charges involved separate robberies; one of a Chinese food deliveryman and one of a pizza deliveryman. Under the terms of the plea bargain, RICKS would receive no more than 3 years in prison in exchange for full cooperation in the attempted murder case against his half-brother, Duane Morrison and co-defendant Siheen Drayton. When called upon to cooperate with the prosecution, including providing truthful testimony about his knowledge of the events surrounding the shootings of Jerry Cooley and Deontint Davis, RICKS failed to cooperate fully. As a result, he forfeited the benefit of the plea bargain, an agreed upon maximum 3 year sentence in his robbery cases, and Judge Breslin sentenced him this morning for the robberies without restriction. “When plea bargains are offered to a defendant who then chooses to ignore the terms of that plea bargain, that defendant will be given no leniency by the Office of the Albany County District Attorney,” commented DA Soares. "In this case, a witness promised to provide truthful information about an attempted murder. This witness was promised a reduced sentence for crimes he committed in exchange for his cooperation. Despite his failure to cooperate, the half-brother who he was trying to protect was still convicted of attempted murder and Mr. Ricks will now spend almost double the number of years he was offered behind bars.” ADA Bruce Lennard handled the prosecution of this case. # # # For further information contact: Heather Streeter Orth
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