Several are sentenced to incarceration by Orleans County Court judge
ALBION – Several people are headed to either state prison or the county jail being sentenced in Orleans County Court this morning.
Christopher Aldrich, 49, of Albion was sentenced to 1 2/3 to 5 years in prison for felony driving while intoxicated.
Two weeks ago, Judge Sanford Church rejected a plea offer where Aldrich would have been sentenced to a maximum of 1 to 3 years in prison.
The judge said Aldrich wasn’t taking responsibility for the crime. He was charged on Jan. 25, when he said he drank about a dozen beers before driving. He registered a BAC of 0.21 percent.
Judge Church said he was also worried that Aldrich, who has 6 DWIs, would drink and drive again when he was released from prison.
Aldrich, if he went to trial and was found guilty, could have faced up to 7 years in prison.
He pleaded guilty today and accepted the plea offer with a cap of 5 years. He apologized for drinking alcohol and then driving without a license.
The judge urged Aldrich to take advantage of alcohol treatment programs while in prison.
Aldrich was fined $2,000 and has other court and DMV surcharges of nearly $1,000.
In other cases in court today:
• A Rochester man was sentenced to three years in prison after admitting to selling fentanyl in Orleans County. Dante L. Thomas, 30, was charged in December with 14 counts of criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree.
Thomas has no prior criminal record. However, the judge said prison was necessary because Thomas had 12 undercover drug sales with either heroin or fentanyl.
“I learned my lesson,” Thomas told the judge.
In addition to prison, Thomas was sentenced to two years of post-release supervision and must pay $1,400 in restitution to the Orleans County Major Felony Crime Task Force.
• A Kendall man was sentenced to 1 to 3 years in prison for felony driving while intoxicated and aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle.
Gilberto Gonzales, 49, was stopped in Albion on April 14. Gonzalez has prior DWIs in New York and Oklahoma.
He was fined $1,000 by the court and has other fines and surcharges of about $1,200.
• Isaiah Casanova, 19, of Medina was sentenced to six months in the county jail, plus five years of probation after pleaded guilty to a drug possession charge. He also must pay $180 in restitution to the Orleans County Major Felony Crime Task Force.
• Dakota Hunt, 24, of Medina was sentenced to two months of weekends in the county jail pus five years of probation. She pleaded guilty to criminal possession of a controlled substance in the fifth degree and admitted she had cocaine on Oct. 31 with the intent to sell it. This is her first conviction.
“I’m going to work and surrounding myself with good influences,” she told the judge. “I don’t want to be in this position ever again in my life.”
