by Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Book Substack
100 CENTRE STREET, Aug 18 – Zaquan Gaillard was arrested on June 8, 2022 for trying to sell 10 guns he'd brought up from North Carolina to undercover NYPD officers in Harlem.
He pled guilty and on August 18, 2023 was up for sentencing. Inner City Press was there, the only media in Courtroom 1333.
Gaillard was brought in handcuffs, wearing a beige sweater. His defense lawyer, the same one who covered the cases before and after Gaillard's, confirmed the deal: seven and a half years concurrent on the two indictments, nunc pro tunc back to June 8, 2022.
The judge asked Gaillard if there was anything he'd like to say; he said nothing and was led out. (The next defendant Mr. Kennedy appeared by video from an upstate jail; the judge spoke of a violent pistol whip robbery perhaps with a gun of the type Gaillard was bringing. Kennedy is already serving seven years and faces five more, consecutive).
Minutes after the sentencing Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg, Jr., announced that "GAILLARD drove the weapons up from North Carolina to the sale point. After completing the sale, he would almost immediately return to North Carolina. Assistant District Attorney Timothy Duda is handled the prosecution of the case under the supervision of Assistant D.A. Christopher Prevost (Chief of the Violent Criminal Enterprises Unit), and Executive D.A. Lisa DelPizzo (Chief of the Trial Division). Senior Investigator Joseph Monroig and VCEU Investigative Analysts Norah Senftleber, Grace Dore, and Brittany Wolfe also provided valuable assistance in this case. D.A. Bragg thanked the NYPD and the Firearms Investigation Unit, including Chief Christopher McCormack, Inspector Brian Gill, Captain Jeffrey Heilig, Lieutenant Michael Raso, Sergeant Brian Manning, Sergeant James Lundy, Detective Juan Rodriguez, who investigated the case while battling cancer, Detective Adam Conlin, and the undercover detectives."
Ironically, down in North Carolina Gaillard was quoted as seeking more, rather than less, law enforcement: "Zaquan Gaillard, 29, of Red Springs, said he never thought Hania would be found in Lumberton because she had been missing for so long. "They found her not too far from my home," he said. "It got me nervous. I have daughters of my own. I can't imagine that happening to them. It makes it even worse that they haven't found the person who did it."
Now he'd been found. Inner City Press will stay on the case(s).
More on Substack here
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