by David Flint
Chad Rubin of North Adams had two years to go in the 8½ year prison sentence he received for robbing the Berlin Bank in June of 2004. Now he is probably stuck with an additional seven to fourteen years. That’s the sentence Judge Jonathan Nichols pronounced on Wednesday to Rubin for conspiring while in Green Haven prison to rob the bank a second time and to cause the murder of bank employees.
However, Rubin’s attorney, Yorden Huban, now has applied to retract the guilty plea claiming that the sentence was overly harsh and was influenced by inflammatory remarks from former Rensselaer County District
Attorney Patricia DeAngelis. In a lengthy victim impact statement read by her in Court last week DeAngelis included a threat to kill Rubin should he ever come near her or her family.
The indictment handed down last November included three charges of Criminal Solicitation and four charges of Conspiracy. The indictment did not name the persons who were threatened with murder in Rubin’s plot, but two of them are believed to be employees of the bank, and a press release from Troop G of the New York State Police indicated that part of the conspiracy was “to kidnap and murder former Rensselaer County District Attorney Patricia DeAngelis.”
In an agreement reached between Huban and Rensselaer County District Attorney Richard McNally, Rubin agreed to plead guilty to one charge of Attempted Solicitation and one charge of Attempted Conspiracy. They believed this would get Rubin a sentence of 5 to 10 years, though the judge would not be bound by that. In fact, the judge surprised everyone by upping the sentence to a total of 8 to 16 years including 5 to 10 years for Attempted Conspiracy and 3 to 6 for Attempted Solicitation to be served consecutively. A resentencing became necessary this week when it was determined that the judge had given more than the maximum for the Solicitation charge believing that the charge pled to was a Class D felony rather than a Class E felony which has a maximum of 2 to 4 years.
In Wednesday’s proceedings Huban said that the agreed upon sentence of 5 to 10 years was deemed fair, just and appropriate by both sides considering all the circumstances of the case and nothing warranted any enhancement of the sentence. Rubin, he said, had cooperated, admitted his crimes and accepted responsibility. The crimes he pled guilty to, according to Huban, did not involve Patricia DeAngelis. Her statements, he said, were inflammatory, inappropriate, unduly prejudiced, undoubtedly had a negative impact on the sentence and should be restricted from the record.
Judge Nichols, a visiting judge from Columbia County Court, did not buy the argument. He revised the erroneous sentence for Attempted Solicitation down to 2 to 4 years but left standing his original sentence of 5 to 10 years for Attempted Conspiracy, leaving Rubin with a sentence of 7 to 14 years. He advised Huban that he had the right to withdraw the guilty plea and he would consider whether he would allow that. If Nichols refuses the withdrawal, Huban and Rubin can appeal that decision to a higher court.
Following the proceedings, Huban reiterated that nothing that Rubin did warranted such an enhancement of the agreed upon sentence. He noted that the judge said he had read the pre-sentencing report but he did not specify any reason for increasing the sentence. Huban said the conspiracy charge that Rubin pled to and the attempt to solicit someone to commit murder did not involve DeAngelis. It did involve bank employees, but there was no victim impact statement from them. Huban was shocked that DeAngelis had threatened to kill his client in open court. “It went way beyond any impact on her,” he said.
District Attorney McNally noted that Judge Nichols had assured all parties that he would give strong consideration to the joint recommendation regarding sentencing but would not be bound by it. “The judge saw fit to up the sentence recommended,” he said, “and I am completely satisfied with that as I would have been with a 5 to 10 year sentence.”