Erie County District Attorney Frank A. Sedita, III announced that 32 year old Angel Escalera, pleaded guilty this morning before Supreme Court Justice Penny M. Wolfgang to Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance in the First Degree, as charged.  This is the highest charge for which Escalera could have been convicted had he gone to trial. 

Escalera admitted that on March 14, 2011, he possessed almost 9 ounces of cocaine in his residence at 2962 Bailey Avenue, Buffalo.  Escalera is currently on parole after serving eleven years in state prison for a 1997 Robbery in the First Degree and Assault First Degree convictions.  In 1997 Escalera brought a gun to the Delaware Park Rose Garden, and along with two others, robbed and shot a man in Delaware Park, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down.

Escalera faces a maximum prison sentence of 15-30 years in prison when he is sentenced before the Hon. Penny M. Wolfgang on July 25, 2012 at 2:00 p.m.