Erie County District Attorney Frank A. Sedita, III announces that 34 year-old David Carey of the City of Buffalo was convicted as charged of Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance in the Second Degree following an 8-day jury trial of before Erie County Court Judge Kenneth F. Case.

On May 22, 2013, New York State Parole Officers Christopher Mack and Daniel Higgins sought to arrest Carey because he had absconded from parole. The parole officers tracked Carey to 448 Amherst Street in the City of Buffalo and waited for the assistance of the Buffalo Police Department. Carey jumped out of a second-floor window but his effort to flee was unsuccessful. A search of the residence yielded over four ounces of cocaine partially underneath a bed where Carey had slept.  

At trial, Carey claimed that he had absconded from parole so that he could live with his girlfriend despite the fact there was no condition of parole that prohibited him from living with his girlfriend. Carey also claimed he had no knowledge of the cocaine under the bed despite the fact that his DNA was on the narcotics packaging.

Carey’s desperation to avoid conviction was not limited to his clumsy lies. Tijuana Evans, the owner of the residence, mysteriously disappeared when the trial commenced. The defense claimed that the defendant’s recorded jailhouse telephone conversations -- where he advised Ms. Evans that she was listed as a material witness for the prosecution and that she should leave town when the trial started -- had nothing to do with her sudden departure from Western New York.

Shockingly, Carey is no stranger to the criminal justice system. Despite the fact that he is only 34 years-old, Carey already has five prior misdemeanor convictions as well as prior convictions for felony level robbery, felony level weapon’s possession and felony level narcotics possession.

Carey faces a maximum term of 17 years in state prison when sentenced by Judge Case on February 2, 2015 at 9:30 a.m.

The case was successfully prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Paul Parisi, who is assigned to DA Sedita’s Tactical Prosecution Unit, and Assistant District Attorney Diane Meldrim, who is assigned to DA Sedita’s Felony Trial Bureau.