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Published: November 17, 2009 09:58 pm    print this story  

COURTS: Man involved in DNA Taser incident gets 45 years in prison


Niagara Gazette

The Falls man who was “tased” to give up a DNA sample, Ryan Smith stood silent and did not speak as he awaited sentencing in Niagara County Court on Tuesday morning.

His lawyer said it was because his client was “an innocent man.”

However, Judge Sara Sheldon Sperrazza didn’t agree and handed down a sentences that could keep Smith behind prison bars for 45 years. Sperrazza gave Smith three consecutive terms of 15 years for his conviction on charges stemming from two armed home invasions and a convenience store stick-up.

Smith was charged with first-degree robbery, burglary, second-degree kidnapping and other crimes in connection with a pair of incidents in 2006.

In July of that year Smith was accused of being one of four suspects who staged a home invasion in the Falls that involved tying up two children with duct tape and forcing their mother to go to another home where a man was shot in a robbery attempt.

Then on Christmas Eve 2006, Smith was accused of staging the armed hold-up of a gas station and convenience store on Hyde Park Boulevard and Ontario Avenue.

Smith’s case gained notoriety when he refused to give a DNA sample to police who eventually used a Taser to force him to comply.

Sperrazza ruled the use of the Taser to get the sample was not unconstitutional and the DNA evidence prosecutors had could be used at Smith’s trial.

Detectives recovered DNA evidence from a pop can at the home invasion scene and from a glove left behind at the robbery scene and a search of the state’s DNA data base matched that evidence to Smith. Prosecutors asked Sperrazza for an order to get a DNA sample from Smith in August 2008 and he voluntarily gave that sample to police.

Smith’s attorney, Patrick Balkin, has said an appeal of Smith’s conviction will be filed.

As he was lead from court, a friend or family members shouted to Smith, “Don’t worry, you’ll be out soon.”

Smith still faces a trial in a rape case.

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