Judge: No extra prison time for Erie fentanyl dealer – News – GoErie.com

Antoun Moore pleaded guilty to possession with intent to deliver fentanyl in the case.

An Erie County judge declined to issue a lengthier sentence Tuesday for a convicted fentanyl dealer who was made eligible for parole at his sentencing earlier this month.

Judge Daniel Brabender rejected a request from the Erie County District Attorney’s Office to reconsider the sentence for Antoun D. Moore Jr., 20, based on corrected sentencing guidelines.

The ruling means that Moore’s original sentence of seven to 18 months in prison will largely remain the same, though the amount of credit he will receive for time served in prison may change slightly. The sentence, issued in early January, made Moore eligible for parole, though he has remained in the Erie County Prison while he awaits prosecution in other pending cases.

“I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt,” Brabender told Moore at Tuesday’s hearing.

Erie police charged that Moore possessed more than 7 grams of the deadly synthetic opioid fentanyl, more than $22,000 in cash and a .38-caliber revolver at a residence in the 3200 block of Wallace Street on Oct. 3, 2017. He pleaded guilty to possession with intent to deliver fentanyl and person not to possess a firearm in October.

Assistant District Attorney Paul Sellers argued that the sentencing guidelines used to determine Moore’s original sentence were incorrect. Under the correct guidelines, Sellers said, Moore’s original sentence went into the mitigated range and did not reflect the seriousness of the charges.

“He’s making a good living off this fentanyl,” Sellers said. “There’s no mitigating circumstances here.”

But Brabender said he was not comfortable giving Moore a longer sentence only because the sentencing guidelines had been calculated incorrectly. He described the issue as a “little technicality” that allowed Moore to receive a shorter sentence.

“It was simply somebody else’s mistake, not the defendant’s,” Brabender said.

Moore’s lawyer in the case, David Ridge, asked Brabender not to change the sentence. Ridge argued that Moore was deserving of a mitigated-range sentence because he accepted responsibility by pleading guilty in the case.

Ridge and Sellers declined to comment after the hearing.

Moore is still awaiting prosecution on charges that he possessed more than 46 grams of a heroin and fentanyl substance at an East Seventh Street residence on Aug. 16, while he was free on bail in the October 2017 fentanyl case.

Madeleine O’Neill can be reached at 870-1728 or by email. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ETNoneill.