Erie County District Attorney John J. Flynn announces that 23-year-old Brandon Brailey-Brooks of Buffalo has been sentenced by Erie County Court Judge Sheila A. DiTullio to 2 years in prison followed by 3 years of post-release supervision. He was sentenced on Tuesday, December 3, 2019.

On August 28, 2018, at approximately 11:34 p.m., the defendant was the driver of a vehicle that was stopped by a Buffalo Police patrol officer on Suffolk Street and Hempstead Avenue. As the officer approached the vehicle, he smelled the odor of marijuana and asked the defendant and his passenger if they had been smoking. The defendant provided the officer with a small bag of marijuana, and the officer asked the defendant to step out of the vehicle.

The defendant exited the vehicle, but ran from the officer. He was apprehended nearby on Ruspin Avenue. Officers found a loaded, semi-automatic pistol in a driveway near where the defendant was taken into custody.

Brailey-Brooks pleaded guilty to one count of Attempted Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Second Degree, a Class “D” violent felony, on the day his trial was set to begin in May 2019.

DA Flynn commends Officer Lawrence Briggs of the Buffalo Police Department for his work in the investigation.

The case was prosecuted by Chief Justin T. Wallens and Assistant District Attorney Lauren M. Silverstein of the DA’s Felony Trials Bureau.