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Office of the District Attorney P. David Soares Rivera-Dejesus Gets 3 plus 2 for Weapons Possession ALBANY, NY – Albany County District Attorney P. David Soares announced today that Marcos Rivera-Dejesus, 19. OF 6 th Street, Troy, NY, pled guilty to Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the 3 rd Degree before the Honorable Thomas A. Breslin. He faces a term of three years in State Prison with two years of post release supervision. RIVERA-DEJESUS, a recent arrival to the Capital District from Puerto Rico, was arrested by Officers of the Watervliet Police Department at about 11:02 PM on July 16 th, 2005 for a routine traffic stop on the Southbound lanes of Route 787 near 3 rd Avenue in Watervliet. When the Officers approached the car, they noticed RIVERA-DEJESUS, who was sitting in the passenger side of the front seat, pulling an object from his waist area and shoving it under the seat. After the Officers asked the occupants to step out of the car, they saw the butt of a fully loaded .357 Magnum revolver. At this point backup was requested and both the operator and the passenger were handcuffed and taken to the Watervliet Police Department Headquarters. After being read his Miranda rights, RIVERA-DEJESUS claimed that the gun was his and that the driver had no knowledge of it saying, “I found the gun near the Heights in Troy. A subsequent trace of the weapon showed that it had been stolen. DA Soares said that the three year term is a tough sentence for a first time offense for a defendant with no prior convictions especially when the defendant was not caught using the weapon in the commission of a crime. “At the same time, the statement of this Office is that regardless of the circumstances, if we catch you with an illegal weapon, you’re going to be facing time in State Prison”, he said. Soares also was pleased with the circumstances of the arrest. “I call this kind of an arrest a best-case scenario,” Soares said. “If we can make the arrest and get jail time before the gun is fired, then we have truly done our job of making the streets safer. I applaud the Watervliet Police Department for getting the job done right.” Sentencing is scheduled for October 19, 2005 before the Honorable Thomas A. Breslin. Back to Press Releases For further information contact: Richard Arthur
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