Murder conviction overturned due to faulty grand jury indictment

A state appeals court has reversed a murder conviction because of a faulty grand jury indictment.

Defendant Gage B. Ashley, 25, pleaded guilty convicted in December 2021, before Cayuga County Court Judge Thomas G. Leone, to first- and second-degree murder, attempted first-degree robbery, fourth-degree conspiracy, second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, and tampering with physical evidence.

Ashley admitted to killing a 36-year-old Auburn man in November 2019 by shooting him several times with a pistol. Two co-defendants also were charged in the crime. Ashley was sentenced to 21 years to life in state prison.

In a decision released, Friday the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court, Fourth Department, unanimously reversed the conviction, and dismissed the indictment.

The decision allows the Cayuga County District Attorney’s Office can re-present the case to another grand jury.

Ashley’s appellate attorney, David P. Elkovitch, argued that Leone should have dismissed the indictment “on the ground that the grand jury was illegally constituted … because one of the grand jurors was not qualified to serve due to a prior felony conviction,” according to the decision.

The Fourth Department agreed.

“It is undisputed that the grand jury was illegally constituted because one of the grand jurors had been convicted of a felony, rendering him unqualified to serve as a grand juror,” The court wrote.

“Despite the illegally constituted grand jury, (Leone) nonetheless determined that dismissal of the indictment was unwarranted inasmuch as the alleged defect did not result in any prejudice to defendant. We conclude that it was an error for the court to require a showing of prejudice before dismissing the indictment,” the court wrote.

“There is no dispute that the grand jury proceedings were defective … due to the presence of the unqualified grand juror, and therefore the court should have automatically dismissed the indictment without requiring any showing of prejudice by defendant,” the Fourth Department wrote.

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