Prisoner’s appeal heard, but denied

Lawyer wanted gun ruled inadmissible, judges disagreed

Nahmel Stratton won a legal round, but lost the match Thursday in appealing his felony gun conviction at the state’s second-highest court.

Appellate justices had agreed with Stratton — who was previously convicted in a federal takedown of the South End-based Original Gangsta Killas street gang — that despite waiving his right to appeal, he could challenge his 2018 gun conviction of seconddegree possession of a weapon. Now 39, he is serving a sevenyear prison term.

Stratton’s waiver of his right to appeal that was required by Albany County District Attorney David Soares’ office was overly broad, not knowing and voluntary and “unenforceable,” the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court’s Third Department said.

The appeals court, in turn, considered Stratton’s appeal and denied it.

The decision said that on April 28, 2017, an off-duty Albany police investigator got a tip from an informant that a man with a gun, joined by others, was in a sport utility vehicle with Texas license plates and headed to Johnnie’s Bar on Broadway. The investigator called a dispatcher, and police stopped the SUV outside the bar.

An officer later testified that as he was about to pat down Stratton, the defendant tried to run away but was stopped. As officers were bringing Stratton to the ground, a loaded gun hit the ground. They arrested Stratton, the decision said.

Stratton’s appellate attorney, Matthew Hug, argued that the gun should have been ruled inadmissible because police did not have probable cause or reasonable suspicion of a crime to stop the SUV.

In a decision authored by Justice Christine Clark, the Third Department disagreed. She said prosecutors showed that the informant had a reliable track record of assisting police over a decade. The SUV was exactly as the informant described and at the location where the informant said it would be, she said.

“The police therefore had reasonable suspicion for the traffic stop and probable cause for defendant’s arrest, and, accordingly, his motion to suppress the loaded firearm was properly denied,” Clark wrote.

Justices John Egan, Stanley Pritzker and John Colangelo concurred.

In 2010, Stratton, known as “Kid,” “Biddy” and “Kidco,” pleaded guilty to racketeering crimes that included cocaine and marijuana trafficking in the OGK racketeering case, which included 25 defendants. He received 59 months in federal prison.