Erie County District Attorney John J. Flynn announces that 20-year-old Anthony J. Ciccarelli of Town of Tonawanda pleaded guilty this morning before Erie County Court Judge Kenneth Case to one count of Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance in the Third Degree, a Class “B” felony. He pleaded guilty to the highest sustainable charge.

On October 1, 2020, at approximately 1:12 a.m., Cheektowaga Police officers approached a vehicle parked on Shanley Street and smelled the odor of marijuana. The defendant, who was sitting in the driver’s seat, admitted to smoking marijuana. The defendant was ordered to exit the vehicle as officers conducted a search. The officers found a small quantity of marijuana and $769.00 in cash on the defendant’s person. Officers recovered more than ½ ounce of powder cocaine and a scale from under the driver’s seat of the vehicle.

The defendant is currently pending sentence in a separate case for accidentally shooting his girlfriend with an illegal gun inside a restaurant in the Town of Cheektowaga last year.

On Thursday, March 5, 2020, at approximately 5:53 p.m., the defendant discharged a handgun at a restaurant at the Walden Galleria. The gunfire struck his girlfriend in the upper right leg. The victim has since recovered from the injury. The handgun was reported stolen from a vehicle in Niagara Falls and was not registered to the defendant.

The defendant pleaded guilty to one count of Attempted Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Second Degree, a Class “D” felony, on September 25, 2020 before Judge Case.

Ciccarelli faces a maximum of 16 years in prison when he is sentenced on both case files on Thursday, March 18, 2021 at 2:30 p.m. He was remanded without bail.

DA Flynn commends the Cheektowaga Police Department for their work in both investigations.  

The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney James M. Marra of the DA’s Felony Trials Bureau.