WILMINGTON – Deputy Attorneys General in the Delaware Department of Justice secure a number of important convictions, sentencings and other court rulings each week. The Department of Justice will send out recaps of key cases.  Here are the highlights from the week ending Friday, Dec. 12.

Convictions:

• Deputy Attorneys General Jamie McCloskey and Matt Frawley won a guilty conviction against John Cresto of Newark on drug dealing, second-degree conspiracy, felony-level non-compliance with bond and resisting arrest. He will be sentenced as a habitual offender because of his previous criminal record. On March 20, 2014, Cresto was stopped in a vehicle by New Castle County Police along with his girlfriend, Meghan Wolf, also of Newark.  As Cresto was handing the registration paperwork to the officer, he also handed him an envelope.  A hand-written drug ledger for the sale of prescription pills was found on the back of the envelope.  A subsequent search of the vehicle resulted in officers finding close to $1,000 cash on Cresto.  Meghan Wolf had Aprazolam (generic form of Xanax) located throughout her purse.  They were each charged with Drug Dealing and Conspiracy.  Each posted bail and they were ordered to have no contact with each other. On April 11, 2014 officers were dispatched to a suspicious vehicle.  Cresto and Wolf were inside and charged with violating the no contact order.  Cresto attempted to flee, but was chased down and taken into custody.  Wolf pled guilty to Conspiracy prior to trial as part of a global plea to resolve all of her open cases.

• Deputy Attorney General John Taylor secured a guilty conviction against Kevin Mitchell, 24 of Wilmington, on one count of felony-level resisting arrest.

• In another case that will carry a habitual offender sentence, Deputy Attorney General Barzilai Axelrod secured a guilty conviction against Dallas Porter, 37, on second-degree burglary and criminal mischief charges.  In 2011, an unknown individual burglarized a residence on Capitol Trail in Newark.  The Newark Police Department processed the scene and secured the evidence, but where initially unable to identify a perpetrator.  The case became a cold case and was reviewed later by another detective of the Newark Police Department.  The DNA profile that had originally been obtained from the scene was compared against Dallas Porter’s DNA and he was subsequently arrested, indicted and convicted.

• In a second trial this week, Deputy Attorney General Axelrod also secured a guilty conviction against Manuel Salaberrios, 40, who was an inmate at the Central Violation of Probation Center in Smyrna, on one count of attempted assault in a detention facility. Salaberrios attempted to start a fight with another inmate in the facility and was seen on video surveillance repeatedly hitting the other inmate.  The other inmate was able to defend against most of the blows, did not fight back, and suffered a small laceration in the process.  Salaberrios is anticipated to be sentenced as a habitual offender.

• Deputy Attorney General Marie Graham secured a guilty plea to fourth-degree rape from Stephanie Seabury, of Dover. Seabury, who was a teacher at Fred Fifer III Middle School in Camden when she was arrested, was then sentenced to 18 months probation and she will have to register as a Tier II sex offender, not have contact with the victim and no contact with children.  She was arrested in April and charged with having sex with an underage child.

Sentencings:

• Deputy Attorney General Brian Robertson secured a 20-year prison sentence for Keith Brown, 23 of 402 Robinson Street, Wilmington, for first-degree assault, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and possession of a firearm by a person prohibited.  The victim was shot in the arm and the abdomen after refusing Brown’s order to get into the trunk of a vehicle.  This is the third incident where Brown has been convicted or adjudicated delinquent of shooting someone.  In addition to his three gun offenses, he was also convicted of and on probation for Drug Dealing from earlier this year.

• Deputy Attorney Axelrod secured a 3-year prison sentence against Gloria Howlen, 27 of Wilmington, for one count of first-degree arson.  In January of 2014 the State Fire Marshal’s Office was dispatched to a fire scene on Cedar Street in Wilmington.  Defendant Howlen had set fire to items inside of a closet of a second floor bedroom, locked the door, and walked out of the occupied house without notifying anyone of the fire.  Smoke detectors within the residence activated and the residents, who were awake, called 911.  The bedroom door was kicked in and the fire was quickly extinguished.  Nobody was injured as a result of the fire.  Howlen accepted responsibility for her actions and entered a plea.

• Deputy Attorney Mark Denney secured a total six-year prison sentence against Raheem Harris, of Wilmington, Delaware, who was convicted of possession of a firearm by a person prohibited in a jury trial last month.  He was sentenced to 5 years of incarceration followed by Level 4 and Level 3 probation on his new criminal charge, plus an additional one year of incarceration for violating probation on his prior offenses of drug dealing and second-degree assault, which were previously secured via plea agreement by Deputy Attorney General Frawley.

• Deputy Attorney General Periann Doko secured a 3-year prison sentence for Nykia Wiggins, 39 years old of Middletown, on a felony-level resisting arrest charge. Wiggins is a repeat offender and was sentenced as a habitual offender. Members of the Delaware State Police Governor’s Task Force  were conducting surveillance in the parking lot of the Harmony Plaza shopping center located on Route 4/Ogletown-Stanton Road in Newark, Delaware.  The defendant was observed in the area and believed to be selling drugs.  While detectives attempted to detain him, the defendant fought and injured one officer.  The defendant has an extensive history of selling drugs.

• Deputy Attorney General Nicholas Wynn secured a 3-year-prison sentence for Jahlil White, 19 of Wilmington, for one count of first-degree reckless endangering. White was on active probation for a 2013 Carjacking conviction. White was driving a stolen car and led the police on a high speed chase which ended when White crashed into a fire truck. One of the firefighters was seriously injured and required medical treatment.

• Deputy Attorneys General Melanie Withers and Casey Ewart secured a 16-year prison sentence against one of the four defendants charged in last year’s carjacking and kidnapping of an 89-year-old Sussex County woman. Jackeline Perez, 17, had pled guilty to first-degree carjacking, first-degree kidnapping and second-degree conspiracy on Sept. 12.

Print