Appeals court affirms 2014 murder conviction
A state appeals court has unanimously affirmed the 2014 murder conviction of a Poughkeepsie man in the shooting death of a Greene County resident.
The ruling was handed down Thursday by the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court, Third Department.
Maurice Pratt, 36, who authorities said was a drug dealer, was sentenced by state Supreme Court Justice Richard Mott on May 9, 2014, in Greene County Court to 22 years to life in state prison for killing Scott Myer at Myer’s home on West Road in Greenville.
The sentence was just shy of the allowable maximum, 25 years to life.
Myer, 40, was found dead in his home on New Year’s Day 2013, having been shot three times in the back of the head, authorities said at the time. He last was seen alive just before Christmas 2012.
Pratt was arrested on Jan. 12, 2013, at the Holiday Inn (now the Best Western Plus) on Washington Avenue in Kingston and charged with second-degree murder.
At the time of the arrest, Greene County District Attorney Charles Bucca said Pratt and Myer had known each other for several years and that drugs were a factor in the case.
Pratt was convicted by a Greene Court jury in March 2014.
In response to Pratt’s challenge of the verdict, the appellate judges wrote: “The verdict was supported by legally sufficient evidence and is not against the weight of the evidence.”
Additionally, the appellate ruling states, when Pratt learned police were investigating him, “he displayed consciousness of guilt by asking others to delete their text messages with him to surreptitiously engage a female to keep [a] witness high on drugs to discredit his future testimony.”
The appeals court further ruled Pratt received “meaningful representation” from defense counsel and that the sentence imposed was not “harsh or excessive.”
In another ruling handed down Thursday, the appeals court denied Chad Olson’s motion to reverse his conviction for the felonies of sexual conduct against a child and sexual abuse and two misdemeanor counts of endangering the welfare of a child.
Olson, 41, of New Paltz, was sentenced by Ulster County Judge Donald A. Williams in 2013 to 14 years in state prison to be followed by 10 years of post-release supervision for crimes against two people.