Erie County District Attorney John J. Flynn announces that 27-year-old Giorgio Williams of Buffalo was sentenced today as a second violent felony offender by State Supreme Court Justice Christopher J. Burns to 7 years in state prison with 5 years post-release supervision.

On July 31, 2019, at approximately 2:40 a.m., Buffalo Police officers observed the defendant sitting in the driver’s seat of a vehicle in a parking lot on East Delavan Avenue and Grider Street. A week prior, the defendant had been stopped by one of the officers for driving with a suspended license. When the officers approached, they saw an open bottle of alcohol inside the vehicle. The defendant then drove away. The officers pursued the defendant and observed him drive through three red lights before pulling over to the side of the road on East Delavan Avenue near William L. Gaiter Parkway. The officers searched the defendant’s vehicle and found a loaded, illegal handgun and a vile containing marijuana.

A jury found Williams guilty, as charged, of one count of Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Second Degree, a Class “C” felony, and one count of Unlawful Possession of Marijuana, a violation, in November 2020. This was the first jury trial held on a criminal case in Erie County superior court since the courts were placed on a pause due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

DA Flynn commends Lt. Pietrzak, Officer Jackson and Officer Sanders of the Buffalo Police Department for their work in the investigation.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys Noha A. Elnakib of the DA’s Community Prosecution Unit and Ryan M. Flaherty of the DA’s Felony Trials Bureau.