| For
Robbing East
Harlem Store
Ballenger
Wanted Low
Sentence Now
Gets 87 Months
by
Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Book
Substack
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
Nov 15 – Cordell
Ballenger and
Saquan
Callender were arrested and
charged with the August 18
gunpoint robbery of a
convenience store on E. 116
Street in East Harlem.
The two
were in the same Complaint,
but they ended up being
separately indicted and their
cases assigned to different
District Judges.
Callendar
was initially ordered released
on $20,000 bond in the U.S.
District Court for the
Southern District of New York
Magistrates Court, which Inner
City Press covers, often the
only media there. That order
was reversed in Part 1.
On October
11 Callender was formally
indicted and his case wheeled
out to new District Judge Dale
E. Ho.
On May 10, 2024,
when Callendar's Federal
Defender wrote in that "the
parties continue to negotiate
a pre-trial disposition" and
will know by June 12.
On June 12, Judge
Ho held a conference - no plea
- and pushed the trial back to
October 21.
On August 14,
Cordell Ballenger in his now
separate case pled guilty
before Magistrate Judge Sarah
L. Cave. She asked, did you or
the co-conspirator have the
weapon? After conferring with
counsel, Ballenger said he had
a knife. His plea agreement is
to 87 to 108 months, 108
months being nine years. His
assigned District Judge Denise
L. Cote is set to sentence him
on November 15. On November 1
his lawyer wrote in asking for
a substantially below
Guidelines sentence.
On November 8 the
US wrote in asking for 87
months.
On November 14
defense counsel wrote in
disputing that US assertion
that Ballenger handed the gun
to Callender, saying on the
video "it is difficult to
ascertain what exactly
transpired between the two
men."
On November 15
Judge Cote sentenced him to 87
months, recommending to BOP
that he receive treatment for
high blood pressure, asthma
and heart disease.
His case is USA
v. Ballenger, 1:24-cr-192
(Cote)
The case
heading to trial is US v.
Callender, 23-cr-523 (Ho)
***
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