N.Y. DRUG SUSPECT LEAPS TO DEATH

NEW YORK (AP) — A 19-year-old man apparently distraught over a prison
sentence offered in exchange for his guilty plea in a drug case jumped
through a courthouse window Thursday and fell 16 stories to his death.

``I'm 19 years old, your honor. That is terrible. That's terrible,''
Derrick Smith told State Supreme Court Justice Budd Goodman, according to a
court transcript.

Smith, of Manhattan, was charged with criminal sale of cocaine and had been
offered three to six years in prison in exchange for a guilty plea. He had
a prior history of drug convictions.

After Smith rejected the offer at the Criminal Courts Building, Goodman set
his trial for Nov. 25. As Smith was led from the courtroom into a secure
area, he ran, jumped on a bench in front of the window and leaped to his
death, falling on a Department of Correction bus before tumbling to the
ground.

He wasn't handcuffed at the time, said David Bookstaver, a spokesman for
the Office of Court Administration. If a defendant is in a secured area and
is not deemed a violent offender, he is not necessarily handcuffed,
Bookstaver said.

Only the court officers leading Smith back to the ground floor to board a
Correction bus witnessed him jump through the window just minutes after
noon, but spectators in the courtroom, including Smith's mother, heard the
ruckus.

Several people on grand jury duty on the ninth floor saw Smith falling
through the air.

``You heard a loud booming sound,'' said Kay Skinner, who was in the grand
jury room listening to testimony when she saw Smith fall.

Smith had been convicted numerous times over the last three years of either
possessing or selling marijuana.

Checked-by: Richard Lake