Published: July 02, 2009 10:26 pm      

COURTS: Bloods gang member may want to change guilty plea in murder case

Facing a 30-year prison sentence for murder, a Bloods gang member may be re-thinking his guilty plea.

DeQuana “Quanny” White had been scheduled to be sentenced Thursday for his plea to charges of first-degree manslaughter and attempted first-degree assault, However, his defense attorney, Robert Viola, asked Niagara County Court Judge Matthew J. Murphy III for a delay, saying there were “legal issues” that might need to be addressed before his client is sentenced.

Viola raised those issues in a letter to Murphy and prosecutors but declined to elaborate on what they were with reporters.

“It may be nothing,” Viola said. “But we want to dot the “i’s and cross the “t’s.”

Assistant District Attorney Holly Sloma said she had “no comment” on Viola’s request or the reason for it.

Sources tell the Gazette that White wants to withdraw his guilty plea. The reason or basis for withdrawing the plea is unclear.

“I know this is a serious case and we’re talking about serious crimes and a serious sentence,” Murphy said in granting the delay.

Viola has until July 14 to submit any motions. White’s sentencing is now set for July 20.

In April, White admitted that he shot and killed Dorothy Joelle Banks in a botched robbery attempt. He also pleaded guilty to being involved in a Niagara Street shooting that left a man and a young boy wounded.

Murphy agreed, at that time, to cap White’s potential prison sentence at 30 years.

The plea deal came just days before jury selection in the case was scheduled to begin. White was facing a trial on charges of second-degree murder and second-degree criminal possession of a weapon in the Sept. 5 slaying of Banks.

He was also facing trial, at the same time, on charges of attempted murder, second-degree assault, first-degree reckless endangerment, second-degree criminal possession of a weapon and two counts of first-degree criminal use of a firearm in connection with a shooting incident in the 2200 block of Niagara Street on Aug. 31 that left a 27-year-old man and a 4-year-old boy wounded.

His deal with prosecutors settled both of those cases. Prosecutors also agreed not to charge him in connection with an August home invasion on Whitney Avenue.

White was linked to the Whitney Avenue crime when a state DNA data based matched his genetic marker to spit recovered from the home invasion crime scene.

A self-admitted member of the Bloods street gang, White, 18, is currently doing time in state prison on a previous burglary conviction. He is well known in the Falls’ North End by the street name “OG,” shorthand for “Original Gangster.”

Officers responding to a call of a disturbance, found Banks’ body slumped in the front seat of her car in an alley in the 1300 block of Ashland Avenue. Banks, 35, 1923 18th St., was rushed to Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center where she died from her wounds.