CANTON — A trio of former SUNY Canton students were each sentenced to a split sentence of jail and probation Monday in St. Lawrence County Court for their September 2015 robbery of a Canton food-delivery man
Edward S. Garcia, 21, of Manhattan, Gerome G. Phillips, 19, and Arcenio Vazquez, 19, both of the Bronx, were all sentenced to six months in the St. Lawrence County jail and five years of probation. Mr. Phillips and Mr. Vazquez were each sentenced for their pleas of second-degree robbery and Mr. Garcia was sentenced for his guilty plea to second-degree attempted robbery, each with a plea deal with the district attorney’s office.
As a part of Mr. Vazquez’s June 23 and Mr. Phillips’s June 30 pleas, the remaining indictment charging them with another count of second-degree robbery and one count of second-degree gang assault was satisfied.
County Court Judge Derek P. Champagne also granted Mr. Phillips and Mr. Vazquez youthful offender status, which will seal the records in the case.
At about 12:15 a.m. on Sept. 24, 2015, in the village, the men, acting in concert with each other, forcibly stole property from Mr. LaPlant, causing him serious physical injury.
The gang assault charge arises out of there being two or more other people present when they allegedly caused physical injury to Mr. LaPlant.
A fourth co-defendant, Derek L. Castillo, then 18, of Manhattan, has been on the lam since his indictment and has not yet been located.
During his preliminary hearing testimony on Sept. 28 in Canton Town Court, Mr. LaPlant, then a delivery person for Domino’s Pizza at Mountain Mart on East Main Street, said he had a delivery after midnight Thursday at the corner of Ike Noble Drive and Prospect Street, where the four students are accused of having punched and kicked Mr. LaPlant, knocking him to the ground and taking $15 in cash, a pizza and barbecue chicken wings valued at $21.57.
Following the alleged assault, Mr. LaPlant was taken to Canton-Potsdam Hospital, Potsdam, by the Canton Volunteer Rescue Squad, where he was treated for cuts to his face, a fractured orbital bone and a severe concussion. He was later released.
In a victim impact statement read by Mr. LaPlant’s mother, he wrote that the injury he sustained to his eye is a lifelong reminder of what was done to him by the four men.
Every year he has to visit a doctor because of his increased chances of glaucoma, he wrote. He also had to drop out of his night classes due to his fear of being attacked while walking the campus alone at night and continues to have nightmares, his mother read.
“And for the life of me, I cannot stay mad at them,” Ms. LaPlant read her son’s words. “They literally threw their lives away for a medium pizza and two eight-piece wings.”
Each of the men apologized for their actions, remarking in different ways on how their actions that night have stayed with them and that they want to be better people.
Mr. Garcia, who was not granted youthful offender status due to his age at the time of the crime, told Judge Champagne that while the felony charge will stay with him for the rest of his life, he had trouble letting go of the nature of the crime and was the only one of the three that sought forgiveness.
“I have to look at myself every day and I ask how I could have done something like that to someone,” Mr. Garcia said.
Judge Champagne told each of the three men, who were sentenced one by one, that there is no appropriate sentence for the crime committed and that Mr. LaPlant’s statement was the most telling part of the case. And while the trio would likely not do “such a cruel and inhumane thing” if they could do it all over again, They couldn’t “unring that bell.”
“The victim will have injuries that will affect him the rest of his life,” Judge Champagne said. ‘It is absolutely amazing that the four of you threw away any potential you may have had and essentially have to start over.”
In addition to their jail and probation sentences, the three men were each ordered to pay $3,000 in restitution and $625 in court fines, fees and surcharges. Because he was not granted youthful offender status, Mr. Garcia also had to submit his DNA and pay an additional $50 fee for DNA processing.