SDNY COURTHOUSE, August 16 – When Mickel Elcock came for sentencing after stealing at least $1.5 million from other people's credit cards to support himself for ten years, he faced another problem. Elcock came into the US from Grenada at age five; he has no documents for it and faces deportation after serving prison time.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge Victor Marrero listened as Elcock's lawyer said his had been no more than a middle class life style, and JPMorgan Chase and Best Buy were the victims, the consumers got their money back. But after how much hassle and worse? The lawyer asked for one year.
The guidelines called for 68 to 78 months; Probation suggested 63. Judge Marrero went with 53 month and, he said, no supervised release since Elcock will be deported.
The Assistant US Attorney cut in to say it is possible that Grenada will not accept Elcock back. Then what? Judge Marrero tacked on three years of supervised release. In the gallery, where Inner City Press was the only media, there was a man in a Cybercrime Task force t-shirt, shaking his head.
Back on June 13 when Elcock's girlfriend and co-defendant Shoshana Marie McGill came to be sentenced after pleading guilty to money laundering conspiracy, her lawyer like Probation argued for no jail time. Assistant US Attorney Sarah Lai urged a sentence within the Guidelines: 37 to 46 months in prison.
Judge Marrero rejected McGill's and her lawyer's argument that she played only a minor role in the conspiracy, which involved buying people's identities and stealing their money.
But he gave weight to the face that McGill's co-conspirator was the father of her three children, Jason Mickel Elcock, who he said is likely to be deported after serving jail time.
There were two dozen family members and supporters in the gallery. AUSA Lai tried to argue that this showed that they could take care of McGill's three children while she did jail time. McGill's lawyer called this disingenuous, saying We don't know who these people are, they have jobs, they have their own kids.
Judge Marrero after some lead-up said, Five years probation. There were signs of relief in the gallery. Then he added, 90 days in a re-entry center (half way house), to be served on weekends. Some of the relief seemed to disappear.
Then Judge Marrero added, Six month home confinement. No one, it seemed, was happy. The case is USA v. Elcock, et al., 18-cr-726 (Marrero).
