Man seeks to vacate guilty plea in connection with shooting
KINGSTON, N.Y. >> An attorney for Matthew Harries urged the Appellate Court to vacate his client’s guilty plea — or at least order a lower court to hold a hearing to determine whether he should be allowed to withdraw his plea — because, the defense claims, the Ulster County District Attorney’s Office failed to turn over evidence in the case that could have been viewed as favorable to his client.
Cliff Gordon, the attorney assigned to represent Harries in the appellate proceeding, said that as a result of that failure, Harries’ defense team was denied the ability to make a knowing decision about whether to enter into a plea deal with prosecutors.
Harries pleaded guilty to one felony count of criminal possession of a weapon, on Nov. 8, 2021, admitting as part of a plea bargain that he possessed a weapon on Oct. 7, 2020, when Kingston resident Khaleel A. Hylton-Jackson was shot in the leg and back. Harries was sentenced in March 2022 to 3 1/2 years in state prison as part of that deal, although he was released from the Greene Correctional Facility on June 2, 2022, after a judge “stayed” Harries’ sentence pending the outcome of his appeal.
Jahsi Quiles, who authorities say shot Hylton-Jackson, told police the attack was retaliation for a previous robbery.
According to Gordon, after Quiles fired the first shot at Hylton-Jackson, his gun jammed so he tossed it to Harries and pulled another gun, which he used to shot Hylton-Jackson in the back. Quiles and Harries then took off running and Harries hid the gun in a dumpster.
“He did not assist (in the shooting) in any way,” Gordon said. “He did not encourage it in any way.”
Both Harries and Quiles were initially charged with attempted murder, assault, weapons possession and tampering with physical evidence
“He was facing attempted murder … I think he was forced into a plea because he was facing other charges,” said Gordon.
Gordon reiterated the claim by Conflict Defender Bradford White that the District Attorney’s Office failed to turn over evidence that White has claimed “was directory incriminatory to (Hylton-Jackson) and exculpatory to Harries and Quiles.”
No one appeared before the Appellate Court on behalf of the Ulster County District Attorney’s Office, which instead relied on the arguments it made in its written submissions to the court.
The panel gave no indication when it would issue a ruling.