| Ernest Murphy Gets 260
Months From Judge Sullivan On Drugs and Guns
Charges
By Matthew
Russell Lee, @SDNYLIVE
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
Feb 13 -- A jury returned
guilty verdicts on drugs and
gun charges on August 20, 2019
against Ernest Murphy, one of
15 defendants in a
Brooklyn-based narcotics
conspiracy case brought by the
U.S. Attorney for the Southern
District of New York.
It
came after some electronic and
laboratory evidence was
suppressed by Circuit Judge
Richard J. Sullivan, who
rather than re-assigning has
kept many of his criminal
cases in the SDNY.
Now on
Febuary 13, 2020, Judge
Sullivan has sentenced Ernest
Murphy. In the gallery of his
mobile courtroom now 11B were
six Murphy supporters, and
independent Inner City Press.
Judge Sullivan was rigorous,
demanding that Assistant US
Attorney Matthew Hellman
justify his count of weight of
heroin and of crack.
In a two
hour proceeding, Sullivan
sentenced Ernest Murphy to 260
in prison: 200 months on Count
1 (lower than the government
requested), and 60 more months
to run consecutive on Count 2.
Judge Sullivan urged Murphy to
get R-DAP drug rehab and job
training and warned his "iPad
and laptop" may be searched --
all this in more than 20 years
when he gets out. What will be
the technology then? Inner
City Press will stay on this.
Murphy's
two Criminal Justice Act
lawyers, Patrick Joyce and
Robert Moore, present again on
February 13, had complained to
Judge Sullivan on the eve of
trial that they had only then
been given 16 gigabytes of
audio and video recordings and
lab tests on crack cocaine.
Rather
than delay the trial, Judge
Sullivan ordered much of it
suppressed. During the five
day trial the government still
had a number of NYPD lab
technicians testimony, and
played wiretaps of cell phone
calls and calls from Riker's
Island, whose location in The
Bronx was cited as a basis for
venue in the SDNY.
In the
intercepted calls, there was
discussion of cooking,
packaging and selling crack
cocaine. Several times
reference was made to bringing
firearms to protect turf. A
government slang expert
witness said that "Shaquille"
jersey meant .32 caliber
pistol.
After the
jury got the case, they asked
to examine the drugs. Judge
Sullivan declined to send the
crack and ecstacy pills into
the jury room. Instead the
juror came out and passed them
hand to hand, in evidence
bags, in the jury box.
On the
second day of deliberations
the jury through the Court
Security Officer passed a note
that they wanted all audio
recordings and transcripts.
Judge Sullivan sent them in a
thumb drive and three binders,
as well as a menu to order
lunch.
But barely
an hour later, the jury
returned with its guilty
verdicts. The case is US
v. Ernest Murphy,
18-cr-373 (Sullivan).
***
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