US Attorney’s Office
Evidence found at Lewis’ abode.
A federal judge delayed Vashun Lewis’ sentencing for the fourth time, this time because she said she hasn’t done all the preparation she needed.
Lewis was due to be sentenced Monday in U.S. District Court in New Haven for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. He appeared before U.S. District Court Judge Janet Hall — a repeat appearance, after several delays in his sentencing. (Read about that here.)
The judge had initially scheduled sentencing in the case for May 28, 2020. It was then pushed to Nov. 4, then to Feb. 4, then to Monday.
New Haven police, working with federal authorities, arrested Lewis in 2017. Lewis, known as “V‑Love,” was engaged in an illegal cigarette trafficking operation, was selling marijuana and heroin, and was known to possess a handgun. He was arrested after a court-authorized search of his home turned up “a 9mm semiautomatic handgun, more than 100 grams of marijuana, items used to process and package drugs for street sale, and more than 50 cartons of cigarettes,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Judge Hall began Monday’s hearing by telling Lewis that delaying the hearing any longer would cause “serious harm to the interests of justice.” He agreed with her finding and indicated that he had no objections to continuing.
The majority of the hearing was spent debating whether Lewis should receive a sentence enhancement for “obstruction of justice” stemming from allegations that Lewis lied to police regarding whether the gun they had found was his.
Lewis’s attorney, Robert Frost, argued that the only definitive statement made by Lewis in a November interview with police was that he touched a gun, not that it was somebody else’s. But he did acknowledge that Lewis did “push back” against the police when they tried to implicate him.
The federal prosecutor in the case, Margaret Donovan, argued that Vashun was “simply lying to get the benefit of the situation at the time” and he obstructed justice by causing law enforcement to change direction and drop the charges against him in light of the statements he made.
Initially, Judge Hall agreed, citing the pending charges that were dropped after information that Lewis provided to police.
But then Judge Hall changed course, upon realizing that she had listened only to a June interview and not the November one cited by Frost. She said she should listen to that latter interview before making a final decision.
This news was met with discontent by none other than Lewis’ own attorney.
“It’s not my wish to have the court adjourn and listen to a three hour audio,” Frost said. He also added that he plans to appeal Lewis’ sentence and was worried about waiving his right to challenge the sentence down the line.
“I hate to say this, but I think in light of what’s in the [pre-sentence investigation report] and the defendant’s view … I’m afraid we’re going to have to recess,” Judge Hall responded.
“It’s not fair to your client. It’s not fair to the government. It’s not fair to justice,” she added.
The trial is currently continued for a couple of weeks so that Judge Hall can obtain and listen to the recording. A new date for the sentencing has not been scheduled.
