Erie County District Attorney Frank A. Sedita, III announces that 27 year-old Kelisa Goree pleaded guilty as charged to Perjury in the First Degree and Criminal Contempt in the Second Degree before State Supreme Court Justice M. William Boller. These are the highest charges for which the defendant could have been convicted after trial.  In other words, Goree did not receive a so-called “plea bargain” and was instead prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. 

The acts underlying this conviction arose from Goree’s testimony before an Erie County Grand Jury investigating an attempted shooting committed by Goree’s boyfriend, Quandrell Patterson. Goree lied under oath before the grand jury (perjury) and refused to answer questions (contempt) once her lies were exposed. It should be noted that Goree’s guilty plea came less than two weeks after Patterson’s conviction for illegally possessing a loaded firearm used in connection with the shooting which was being investigated by the grand jury.

Goree faces a maximum of 7 years in state prison when she is sentenced by Justice Boller on June 12, 2015, at 9:30 a.m.

The case was successfully prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Eugene T. Partridge, III who is assigned to DA Sedita’s Tactical Prosecution Unit. 

DA Sedita also announces that 18 year-old Shakeena Butler was arraigned on a sealed indictment before County Court Judge Michael D’Amico charging her with Criminal Contempt in the Second Degree. 

It is alleged that on July 10, 2014, after being sworn as a witness in the murder trial of her boyfriend, Damone Lewis, Ms. Butler repeatedly, contumaciously and willfully refused to answer questions posed to her by homicide prosecutor Gary Hackbush. Despite Butler’s alleged efforts to derail the prosecution of her beloved, Lewis was convicted as charged and sentenced to a term of 20 years- to-life in state prison.

Damone Lewis is no stranger to heinous crimes and witness intimidation. Last year, Lewis pleaded guilty to Attempted Murder in the 2^nd Degree in connection with shooting and paralyzing a 15 year-old girl. On the day Lewis was to be sentenced, that victim claimed that Lewis was not the perpetrator. Further investigation revealed that the victim had been intimidated and that Lewis was, in fact, the person who put the teenage victim in a wheelchair for the rest of her life. Lewis received another 10 years in state prison when sentenced for this crime  

If convicted of the crime for which she stands indicted, Butler faces a maximum prison sentence of one year. 

Like all defendants accused of a crime, Butler is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.