| Bronxite Escaped From
Halfway House Then Armed Robbery on 175 Street
Now 92 Months in Fort Dix
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
June 24 – When Matthew Sprull
came to be sentenced for his
role in an armed robbery on
Walton Avenue in The Bronx
while on the lam from a
half-way house there, it was
preceded by a technical legal
argument about the U.S.
Sentencing Guidelines.
As
argued by Daniel Habib of the
Federal Defenders, Sprull was
and is not a career offender
because conpiracies are not
"specifically enumerated" as a
predicate for career offender
status. While Sprull at first
won on the legal issues before
U.S.
District Court
for the
Southern
District of
New York Judge
P. Kevin
Castel, on the
substance of
sentencing
things took a
different
turn.
Sprull had
family members
and friends
and his five
year old
daughter in
the gallery.
He said he was
sorry for his
bad judgment
and asked for
a second
chance.
Judge
Castel then
read out loud
Sprull's
previous
request for
just this,
when he was
sentenced to
60 months for
a narcotics
pills fraud.
He recounted
the "instant
offense," in
which Sprull
along with
Janssen Smalls
robbed two
victims of
jewelry, at
gunpoint, as
they got into
their SUV on
Walton Avenue
and 175th
Street on
September 7,
2018.
Sprull said he
didn't know
that Smalls
had a gun.
After Smalls
fired the gun
from their
fleeing Acura,
there was a
car crash on
the Grand
Concourse and
East Tremont
Avenue. Smalls
has yet to be
sentenced.
Sprull's
Federal
Defender
lawyer Robert
M. Baum said
it's wrong
that Smalls
and Sprull
face the same
guidelines
sentence. He
asked for 72
months total.
Judge Castel
noted that he
could go above
the guidelines
for Smalls
when that day
comes.
Judge Castel
sentenced
Sprull to 77
months on the
robbery, and
then
consecutive
and not
concurrent to
15 months for
escape from
the halfway
house for a
total of 92
months. He
told Sprull to
write to write
letters to his
daughter from
jail, perhaps
at Fort Dix.
As the
Marshals took
him away, his
daughter said,
"Daddy!"
While many even
most cases in the Magistrates
Court of the
SDNY
are
sealed, on
June 13 SDNY US
Attorney Geoffrey
L. Berman
announced the
arrest and
presentment of
two middle
aged men for
murder for hire, and
said they had
already been
presented in
the Magistrates
Court.
But even an
hour later,
the case file
or docket for
19-cr-395 said
"This case is
under seal." Inner
City Press asked,
as to this and
other murky
Mag Court
cases, Why?
On
June 19 Inner
City Press
went to cover
the
arraignment of
the two men,
who each with
a CJA lawyer.
District
Court Judge P.
Kevin Castel
asked, Is this
death
eligible?
There
was a silence.
Finally
Judge
Castel was
told, the
murder didn't
happen. He nodded,
adding
that there was
no "learned
counsel" requirement
triggered....
***
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