BATAVIA/Odom declines plea offer in assault case

Antwan Odom, 18, a star athlete at Batavia High School, appeared in Genesee County Court on Friday morning to accept or decline a plea offer in an assault case involving Batavia High School Football star Ray Leach.

Odom was indicted in December of 2018 on the charges of assault 1st, a class B violent felony and criminal possession of a weapon 4th, a misdemeanor.

After a conference with Judge Zambito and District Attorney Larry Friedman, Odom’s Attorney Frank Housh says the plea offer was declined due to no guarantee as to what the sentence will be. Housh also says his client feels he shouldn’t plead guilty to something he didn’t do.

In court today, District Attorney Larry Friedman offered an unconditional plea to assault 2nd, a class D violent felony that carries a 2-7 year determinate sentence. However, if there are mitigating circumstances, like no criminal record or not the first aggressor, and the Judge puts this on record during sentencing, Odom could have been sentenced to straight probation, a conditional discharge, split sentence, 6 months in jail with 5 years probation.

The court could have also sentenced him as a youthful offender. It would not have been a conviction, but a youthful offender adjudication. Under those circumstances he could have been sentenced under an E felony, where the maximum sentence would be 1 1/2 -3 years, he would also have been eligible for probation.

The incident occurred August 4, 2018 in the area of 153 Ross street in the City of Batavia.

Odom is accused of causing serious physical injury to another person, Raymond L. Leach III, by means of a dangerous instrument, that being a knife.

Odom is accused of possessing a dagger, dangerous knife, dirk, stiletto, imitation pistol or other dangerous instrument with intent to use unlawfully against another person.

However, no weapon was found by police.

Housh says Odom insists he did not do this.

“I told my client what the Judge said, I asked if he would give some sort of inclination based on my client has no previous record, he says I can’t give you a promise other than the fact that I will evaluate the case based on all of the factors, which I don’t doubt, but my client didn’t do this, my client feels he shouldn’t plead guilty to something he didn’t do,” says Housh.

Leach told police the altercation came after he accused Odom of stealing personal property. Leach was transported to Strong Memorial Hospital by ambulance for non-life threatening injuries after the incident and was released a short while later after receiving treatment.

“That’s true the victim had cuts, they say they were cuts with a knife, we have no knife, they have no testimony other than the alleged victim in this case. The only medical records we have are 2-3 pages of records from the emergency room, we don’t have any idea if he was injured as a result of those cuts, aside from Ray Leach’s bald assertion, we have no reason to believe that my client did anything. All we have is Ray Leach’s testimony about everything, that’s their proof.”

Housh says he is also making a motion to add character evidence.

“We will see where this leads, in a justification defense, self defense, one of the issues is the character of the first aggressor and how you defend yourself. The fact that Ray Leach is known in the community to be a violent person, a confrontational person, known to be a drug dealer who by the prosecutors own admission he went to my clients house, called him out and beat him into unconsciousness, so to say his history of violence and intimidation is irrelevant is simply absurd, we should be able to bring that up.”

Housh says he also evaluating whether there should be a change of venue motion and whether it is legally appropriate.

Odom will re-appear in court on July 2, 2019 at 2:00p.m for motions.

He is currently out on 30,000 bond bail