DRUG-DEAL SLAYING LEADS TO 28 YEARS TO LIFE IN PRISON

When he stood before a judge Wednesday to be sentenced for the murder of a
Rochester teenager, drug dealer Andre Lamar Parsons blamed everyone but
himself.

The jury was biased, the judge made unfair rulings, the eyewitnesses lied,
and the news media doomed him by reporting that he was charged with another
murder but freed because of a lack of evidence, Parsons claimed.

"I never had a fair trial," he said. "I'm totally innocent. I never
committed this crime."

But as Monroe County Court Judge Frank P. Geraci Jr. ordered Parsons to
prison for 28 years to life, he suggested that Parsons cast his net too
widely when seeking the reason for his conviction.

"You can't blame the jury," Geraci said. "You can't blame the news media.
You've got to look in the mirror. There you'll find the person responsible
for your standing here today. It's you."

Parsons, 21, was convicted of intentional second-degree murder last month
in the slaying of 18-year-old David Wright, who was gunned down Aug. 13 on
Fulton Avenue in northwest Rochester.

Wright was selling cocaine when he and Parsons argued over drugs, then
exchanged insults about each other's families, witnesses said.

The case hinged on the testimony of witnesses who said Parsons fired two
shots from a .45-caliber pistol as he stood on a porch, hitting Wright in
the street. As Wright writhed helplessly on the pavement, Parsons stood
over him and finished him off, said Assistant District Attorney Clifford P.
Owens.

"This community won't tolerate gun-toting, drug-selling killers," Owens
said as he asked Geraci to impose the maximum prison term of 25 years to
life and another sentence of four to 12 years for drug charges that Parsons
pleaded guilty to after his murder trial.

Although Owens said Parsons showed no remorse for the slaying, defense
lawyer Lawrence L. Kasperek said Parsons was misidentified as the killer.

"It's difficult to be remorseful for something you feel you were falsely
accused of," Kasperek said.

Citing Parsons' criminal record, which began with juvenile charges for
selling drugs when he was 15, Geraci imposed a total sentence of 28 years
to life. Parsons will be eligible for parole in 2029.

"You're a young man," Geraci said, "but boy, you're a dangerous guy."