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(Joshua D. Huntress)<\/p>\n
Press release<\/p>\n
Joshua D. Huntress, age 29, of Mayville, Chautauqua County was sentenced today by the Hon. Michael M. Mohun to the agreed upon sentence of 7 \u00bd to 15 years on the Aggravated Vehicular Homicide, a class B non-violent felony, and 5 years each on three separate counts of Assault in the Second Degree, a class D violent felony, plus 5 years each of post release supervision.\u00a0 By law these sentences must be run concurrent in spite of the fact that there were 4 separate and distinct victims.\u00a0 The defendant was ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $400,110.63 which will be reduced to a civil judgment.<\/p>\n
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July 9, 2017\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Tomasa Martinez<\/p>\n
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(David and Minerva Stefanski)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Tonya Colon(daughter of Tomasa Martinez) with George McGann<\/p>\n
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This tragedy was preventable not just because of acts of the defendant who chose to drive while high on multiple drugs. This tragedy could have also been prevented had the system not failed.\u00a0 Mr. Huntress should have never had a license, should have never been in Wyoming County and should have been in jail well before July 9, 2017.<\/p>\n
As was stated in court during sentencing, on the date of this tragedy, July 9, 2017, Mr. Huntress had the following legal history and had 3 pending cases in other states:<\/p>\n
11\/15\/09\u00a0\u00a0 a warrant was issued out of Larimer, Wyoming for DUI Alcohol \u2013 this warrant is still active because Wyoming refused to extradite<\/p>\n
8\/28\/2012 \u2013 a warrant was issued out of Worthington, MN for Driving While Impaired \u2013 warrant still active because MN refused to extradite<\/p>\n
2\/2\/14 \u2013 Mr. Huntress was returned on another warrant that was issued out of Erie County, NY<\/p>\n
12\/30\/14 \u2013 Mr. Huntress was convicted of two crimes in PA \u2013 a felony for Receiving stolen property (this is the charge that Judge Mohun ruled that can be considered a felony in NY and thus treat him as a second felony offender on this case) as well as the crime of Access Device Fraud \u2013 His sentence was Probation<\/p>\n
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-the outstanding warrants remained \u2013 nothing was done<\/p>\n
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In the US, as codified in Federal Law, there is an interstate compact that binds all of the states as to the rules and regulations of how people are transferred from state to state when they are on probation or parole. Each state has an advisory council which ironically I have been a member of the NYS Council for approximately 2 years.<\/p>\n
1\/2015 \u2013 Pennsylvania sends a request to the Chautauqua Co. Probation Department requesting to transfer probation supervision for Mr. Huntress.<\/p>\n
Note: This transfer is only courtesy supervision and the supervising agency has no authority to arrest or detain. They can only report back to the sending state and the sending state (in this case PA) has to act by filing documents to retake the individual.<\/p>\n
2\/6\/15 \u2013 Request for transfer to Chautauqua Co. Probation Department was denied by Chautauqua County for the following reasons:<\/p>\n
2\/12\/15 \u2013 PA responds to the denial with the following<\/p>\n
MN and WY don\u2019t want to extradite<\/p>\n
Note: Due to the compact rules Chautauqua County was forced to take Mr. Huntress as under the rules even though he had two pending warrants PA declared him to be in \u201csubstantial compliance\u201d therefore because he lived in NY the compact allows for the forced transfer.\u00a0 So his probation was transferred.<\/p>\n
Also pending at the time of transfer was an unresolved arrest in NY.<\/p>\n
2\/2015 \u2013 Chautauqua Co. Probation Supervision begins<\/p>\n
6\/14\/15 \u2013 Huntress is convicted of Poss. Forged Instrument 3rd<\/sup><\/p>\n During 2016 Mr. Huntress for the most part remained complaint with probation<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In April of 2017 this is where things really take a turn and the system collapses.<\/p>\n 4\/24\/17 \u2013 Huntress was arrested for DWAI by Drugs in T\/Ellery, Chautauqua Co. New York \u2013 Upon information and belief bail was either never set or not set high enough with 2 pending warrants and being on felony probation supervision.\u00a0 His driver\u2019s license never suspended at any point. To date this case is still pending and nothing has been done. He is presume innocent of these charges.<\/p>\n NO REPORT WAS EVER SENT TO PA TO INFORM THEM OF THE ARREST THEREFORE NO REQUEST FOR RETAKING WAS EVER POSSIBLE<\/p>\n 4\/28\/17 \u2013 Mr. Huntress overdoses and has to be dealt with for MH issues \u2013 NO REPORT MADE TO PA<\/p>\n 4\/28\/17 \u2013 DV incident \u2013 a Domestic Incident Report is filed \u2013 Mr. Huntress\u2019s girlfriend doesn\u2019t want him arrested \u2013 NO REPORT MADE TO PA<\/p>\n 6\/4\/17 \u2013 Mr. Huntress arrested for alleged Possession of Cocaine, switched license plates, no insurance \u2013 DEFENDANT IS NOT BROUGHT BEFORE A JUDGE \u2013 given an appearance ticket to appear on 7\/11\/17 \u2013 even though arrested on 6\/4\/17 \u2013 his arrest does not hit the system until 6\/24\/17 \u2013 NO REPORT MADE TO PA<\/p>\n -Note: Since the defendant was given an appearance ticket, he was not brought before a judge therefore no bail was set and neither a Judge nor a DA was given an opportunity to review his criminal history and make an argument for bail.<\/p>\n -Had that been done it was highly likely that defendant would have been held on enough bail to hold him on any of the pending charges as well as allowing PA to request a warrant for their case.\u00a0 He most likely would have been in a jail on July 9, 2017 (the date of the incident in Wyoming Co)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 6\/30\/17 \u2013 Mr. Huntress had another overdose – Narcan used to revive him as he was not breathing. \u2013 PA not notified.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 7\/9\/17 \u2013 the date of his crimes here in Wyoming County<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 7\/11\/17 \u2013 a Progress Report was made to PA regarding his arrests in Ellery and Pomfret by the Chautauqua Co. Probation Department.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 7\/12\/17 \u2013 another Progress Report was made to PA regarding the Wyoming County charges<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It should also be mentioned that retaking was unlikely by PA because Mr. Huntress now had unresolved criminal cases in NY and they defer to the local courts to determine whether he should be held.\u00a0 They falsely assume that these courts are run by judges with specialized legal training.\u00a0 \u00a0The use of lay people as local judges is unique to NY which is a very foreign idea to many other states.<\/p>\n This is just yet another example of why New York needs to move to District Courts with judges who have law degrees.<\/p>\n Another way to say it is that the compact allows one state to transfer a defendant to another state while a person has a pending arrest warrant but it won\u2019t allow for retaking of that same person if they have pending cases without warrants.\u00a0 This is what we need to change.<\/p>\n This case is also a great example of why BAIL MATTERS regardless of whether it\u2019s a misdemeanor, felony (violent or non-violent). Bail is important and it must remain at the discretion of the prosecutor, defendant and the judge on a case by case basis.\u00a0 The proposal by the liberal democrats, including the Governor, and even members of my own DAs association is wrong and just simply anti-victim, pro-criminal and quite frankly pandering for votes.<\/p>\n This case also highlights the absurdity of treating vehicular homicides as non-violent homicides.\u00a0 Look at the devastation of what he did to these four families.\u00a0 Tomasa Martinez has been lost forever and the lives of Dave and Minerva Stefanski and George McGann are forever destroyed.\u00a0 They went from living a full and productive lives to living in pain and drowning in debt due to loss of work and medical bills.\u00a0 These are people who we are re-victimizing when we throw bail out the window and when we call these kinds of crimes non-violent.<\/p>\n I am calling for the following:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIt is important to note that these events occurred not because of a bad person or bad organization.\u00a0 They occurred because we need to get the court system into the 21st<\/sup> century and because we need to modify the compact system so that a person like Joshua Huntress, after multiple arrests, overdoses and DWI arrests and convictions, isn\u2019t allowed to continue to be a threat to public safety.\u00a0 It would be a separate tragedy if we did not learn from this case.\u00a0 The victims in this case should have never been put in the cross hairs of Joshua Huntress,\u201d said Wyoming District Attorney Donald O\u2019Geen .<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" (Joshua D. Huntress) Press release Joshua D. Huntress, age 29, of Mayville, Chautauqua County was sentenced today by the Hon. Michael M. Mohun to the agreed upon sentence of 7 \u00bd to 15 years on the Aggravated Vehicular Homicide, a class B non-violent felony, and 5 years each on three \u2026<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/videonewsservice.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Joshua-Huntress-2.jpg?resize=300%2C169&ssl=1\")
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