His lie that got 2 U.S. Marshals shot gets him 2 years in fed prison
A Bronx man whose lie to U.S. Marshals led to two of them being shot by an armed fugitive has been hit with two years behind bars for the deception.
Grant Grandison could have come clean when marshals, NYPD officers and Massachusetts state troopers knocked on his door Dec. 4, 2020, looking for Andre Sterling, who was wanted for shooting a state trooper during a traffic stop on Cape Cod.
Sterling was staying in Grandison’s apartment on Ely Ave. in Edenwald, but Grandison told the marshals he was the only one home.
When the marshals entered the apartment, the 35-year-old fugitive came out of a bedroom, his gun blazing.
Sterling wounded two of the marshals before he was killed in the wild, life-or-death shootout.
Grandison pleaded guilty in June to making false statements to federal agents.
On Tuesday, Manhattan Federal Court Judge Kimba Wood sentenced him to two years in federal prison, three years of supervised release, and more than $80,000 in restitution to the federal Department of Labor to cover the marshals’ medical bills.
Sterling was wanted for the Nov. 20 shooting of rookie Massachusetts State Trooper John Lennon. A bullet tore through the trooper’s hand before striking his bullet-resistant vest near the shoulder.
Grandison’s lawyer, Amy Gallicchio of the Federal Defenders, asked the judge to consider no time in prison, arguing that being locked up could mean financial ruin for his family.
He and his wife own a party decor rental business in the Bronx, which will have to start paying back a $150,000 pandemic-related Small Business Administration loan next year, and he has a college-bound daughter, Gallicchio wrote the court.
“Mr. Grandison is a gentleman in every sense of the word. It is not accurate to suggest that he has not yet paid a price for his conduct,” she wrote. “He suffers every day with the knowledge and shame of what his lie resulted in. And he lives with guilt and blame over the anguish he has caused his family and the financial jeopardy he has placed his wife and daughter in.”