Suspect in Manhattan stabbings acquired no extra jail time because of DA deal

Ramon Rivera was already on Rikers Island dealing with housebreaking expenses when he acquired into deeper bother.

In Could, the 51-year-old inmate kicked a correction officer and smacked her right into a wall after his decompensating psychological well being landed him within the Bellevue Jail Ward.

Rivera was charged with assault for the incident. A second conviction might have added months to his 364-day housebreaking sentence, leaving him behind bars on Nov. 18 — the day he allegedly stabbed and killed three folks in Manhattan.

However courtroom transcripts obtained by the NBC New York I-Workforce confirmed that on Sept. 4, Rivera took a deal provided by the Manhattan district legal professional’s workplace, pleading responsible to tried assault and receiving a 90-day jail sentence.

Regardless of the second crime, Rivera didn’t serve any additional time.

The deal advocated by the assistant district legal professional and authorized by Decide Janet McDonnell in courtroom that day made the second sentence of 90 days concurrent together with his first sentence. By that point, he had already served seven months.

“I do not anticipate this plea will change his anticipated launch date which is October 17, 2024,” the ADA stated, in keeping with the transcripts.

“A plea supply to run concurrent as a substitute of consecutive sentences was a tragic choice,” stated Craig Rothfeld a criminologist and jail advisor with the agency Inside Outdoors Ltd.

Rothfeld stated selecting consecutive sentences might have saved Rivera incarcerated one other 60-90 days.

“The opposite tragic choice was made by the NYC Division of Corrections, once they awarded him his ‘good time,'” Rothfeld stated.

Had the DOC revoked Rivera’s day off for good conduct, he may need remained jailed till Feb. 2025. As an alternative, he was launched on Oct. 17, after serving two-thirds of his 364-day sentence.

The DOC didn’t reply to the I-Workforce’s particular questions on why they didn’t penalize Rivera for assaulting certainly one of their correction officers.

In an announcement, DOC spokesman Patrick Gallahue stated “With regards to discharge and sentences, the Division guidelines are set out in Correction Regulation, which have been in place for many years.”

Some jail reform advocates advised the I-Workforce one cause the DOC might have averted confronting the assault head-on is that their correction officer, Carol Garcia, was additionally charged within the assault, after being caught on surveillance video attempting to kick Rivera again after he was restrained, in keeping with the NYC Division of Investigation.

Officer Garcia pleaded responsible to a misdemeanor and was sentenced to 10 days of neighborhood service in keeping with regulation enforcement.

“There is no such thing as a excuse for this defendant or any correction officer to try to assault an individual in custody,” stated Jocelyn Strauber, the commissioner for the town’s Division of Investigations.

The Manhattan DA’s workplace didn’t touch upon why they really helpful a concurrent sentence for Rivera. However sources within the workplace advised the I-Workforce that given the totality of the circumstances together with the correction officer’s unlawful conduct and lack of bodily accidents, a 90 day concurrent sentence was an applicable disposition.

The transcripts reviewed by the I-Workforce replicate that each one events and the choose had been conscious of Rivera’s extreme psychological sickness. His protection legal professional stated in courtroom that his shopper is a recognized schizophrenic who had been non-responsive to many questions on the case. Transcripts present the legal professional stated Rivera was vocal about what he known as his “psychological discontrol.”

Native criminologists agree about 20% of the prisoners on Rikers Island are coping with extreme psychological sickness.

Prosecutors, the choose and the DOC couldn’t have recognized that Ramon Rivera could be accused of killing three folks one month after being launched, stated Michael Jacobson, a former NYC correction and probation commissioner.

Jacobson presently serves on a fee created by the Metropolis Council to look at changing Rikers island with smaller, borough-based jails. He says the concurrent sentences and obvious constant lack of deal with Rivera’s analysis mirrored within the I-Workforce’s assessment of courtroom transcripts had been missed alternatives.

“The larger-picture drawback, nevertheless, is that protecting prisoners with psychological sickness longer in a spot like Rikers might solely make them worse by the point they’re finally launched. Our system is lacking what different international locations have, which is a safe detention system particularly for prisoners with psychological sickness,” Jacobson stated.