Manhattan stabbing suspect avoids additional prison time thanks to prosecutor’s agreement – NBC New York

Ramon Rivera was already facing burglary charges at Rikers Island when he got into bigger trouble.

In May, the 51-year-old inmate kicked a corrections officer and slapped him against a wall after being transferred to the Bellevue Prison Ward due to his declining mental health.

Rivera was charged with assault for the incident. A second conviction could have added months to his 364-day burglary sentence, leaving him behind bars on Nov. 18. He stabbed and killed three people in Manhattan.

But court documents obtained by the NBC New York I-Team showed Rivera accepted a deal offered by the Manhattan district attorney’s office on Sept. 4, pleading guilty to attempted assault and being sentenced to 90 days in jail.

Despite the second offense, Rivera did not serve additional prison time.

The agreement, defended by the assistant district attorney and approved in court that day by Judge Janet McDonnell, made the second sentence of 90 days concurrent with his first sentence. By then he had already served seven months.

“I do not anticipate that this plea will change his expected release date of October 17, 2024,” ADA said, according to transcripts.

“The defense offer to impose concurrent rather than consecutive sentences was a tragic decision,” said Craig Rothfeld, a criminologist and prison consultant at Inside Outside Ltd.

Rothfeld said consecutive sentences could keep Rivera in jail for another 60 to 90 days.

“The other tragic decision was made by the New York Department of Corrections when he was given a ‘good time’ award,” Rothfeld said.

If the DOC had revoked Rivera’s good behavior warrant, he could have remained in prison until February 2025. Instead, he was released on October 17 after serving two-thirds of his 364-day sentence.

The DOC did not respond to the I-Team’s specific questions about why they did not punish Rivera for assaulting one of the corrections officers.

“When it comes to releases and penalties, the Department’s rules are set forth in the Corrections Act, which has been in effect for decades,” DOC spokesman Patrick Gallahue said in a statement. he said.

Some prison reform advocates told the I-Team that one reason the DOC has avoided directly confronting the assault is because corrections officer Carol Garcia was also charged with assault after she was caught on surveillance video trying to kick Rivera. He was restrained, according to the NYC Department of Investigation.

Officer Garcia pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor and was sentenced to ten days of community service, according to law enforcement.

“There is no excuse for this defendant or any corrections officer attempting to attack a person in custody,” said Jocelyn Strauber, commissioner of the city’s Department of Investigation.

The Manhattan District Attorney’s office did not comment on why they recommended a concurrent sentence against Rivera. But sources in the office told the I-Team that a concurrent 90-day sentence was an appropriate disposition given the corrections officer’s unlawful conduct and the totality of the circumstances, including the absence of physical injury.

The transcripts reviewed by the I-Team reflect that all parties and the judge were aware of Rivera’s serious mental illness. The defense lawyer told the court that his client suffered from schizophrenia and did not answer many questions about the case. Transcripts show the attorney openly cited what Rivera called a “mental control disorder.”

Local criminologists agree that about 20% of inmates at Rikers Island deal with serious mental illness.

Michael Jacobson, New York’s former commissioner of corrections and probation, said prosecutors, the judge and the DOC could not have known Ramon Rivera would be charged with killing three people a month after his release.

Jacobson currently serves on a commission created by the City Council to study replacing Rikers Island with smaller, county-based jails. He says the concurrent sentences and the continued lack of focus on Rivera’s diagnosis reflected in the I-Team’s review of court transcripts are missed opportunities.

“But the big picture problem is that keeping inmates with mental illnesses longer in a place like Rikers actually makes them worse off when they’re eventually released. Our system lacks the safe detention system that other countries have,” Jacobson said, especially for inmates with mental illnesses. ” he said.