Syracuse, NY - A third Syracuse man involved in a suburban home invasion during which the woman resident was sexually assaulted by the intruders was sentenced today for his role in the break-in. But unlike his two co-defendants, Justin D. White did not deliver an obscenity-laced sentencing tirade. He offered a quiet apology and a claim of innocence. Onondaga County...
Syracuse, NY - A third Syracuse man involved in a suburban home invasion during which the woman resident was sexually assaulted by the intruders was sentenced today for his role in the break-in.
But unlike his two co-defendants, Justin D. White did not deliver an obscenity-laced sentencing tirade. He offered a quiet apology and a claim of innocence.
Onondaga County Judge Anthony Aloi and Assistant District Attorney Melinda McGunnigle both said White, 25, of Thurgood Terrace, deserved every day of the 22-year state prison sentence he agreed to in pleading guilty last month to first-degree burglary and first-degree criminal sexual act.
White’s comment about being sentenced for something he didn’t do was an apparent reference to the sexual assault allegation, McGunnigle said. Although White admitted sexually assaulting the victim in pleading guilty to the criminal sexual act charge, he denied sexually assaulting the victim in talking to the probation department officer who prepared the court’s pre-sentence report, the prosecutor said.
McGunnigle read in court a brief written statement from the victim in which the woman called White “a sad excuse for a man” and indicated she hoped that if he had children of his own that he would not get the chance to see them again.
Defense lawyer Laurin Haddad asked Aloi to postpone sentencing for a month to give White’s children time to come here from their home in Arizona to visit with their father before he went to prison.
The judge, noting White has six children, denied the request.
White was one of five people charged in the July 24 home invasion during which the victim was raped and sexually assaulted by two of the intruders in front of her 5-year-old daughter.
Darron Phillips, 25, also of the Thurgood Terrace address, was sentenced last month to 25 years in state prison for first-degree burglary and first-degree rape as the other intruder who sexually assaulted the victim. Jayson M. Kelley, 26, of West Genesee Street, was sentenced two weeks ago to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to first-degree burglary and first-degree robbery.
Phillips and Kelley repeatedly muttered obscenities during their sentencing appearances.
Another defendant, Aimee M. Burton, 19, of East Syracuse, is facing no more than 3 ½ years in prison after pleading guilty to attempted second-degree burglary.
Anthony M. Griffin, 31, of East Molloy Road in Mattydale, is facing trial July 19. Authorities contend he was the mastermind behind the home invasion even though he was not present at the scene of the crime.