LIVINGSTON COUNTY — According to a statement by Eric Schiener, the former First Assistant District Attorney who originally tried the case against Kury Spencer and won a conviction on assault charges and a seven year prison sentence, Spencer’s efforts to appeal his case have come to an end.
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After nearly six months of deliberation and following a lengthy telephone conference in January, Associate Judge Eugene F. Pigott of the New York State Court of Appeal denied Spencer’s application for leave to appeal the unanimous decision of the 4th Department entered in July 2013. The decision effectively exhausts Spencer’s chances to challenge his conviction and sentence in New York.
Spencer was originally charged in an incident where he drove his car head-on into a car driven by an elderly couple, severely injuring them both. Spencer was allegedly “robotripping” at the time, a slang term for drinking a bottle of Robitussin with the intention of hallucinating.
Spencer was originally represented by then defense attorney and current Livingston County District Attorney Greg McCaffrey. Spencer appealed his conviction based on claims that the trial included inappropriate comments from the prosecutor, a potentially tainted jury due to media reporting, inadmissible evidence, and non-qualified expert testimony, and resulted in an excessively harsh sentence by Judge Cohen.
Due to McCaffrey’s earlier representation, both he and the Livingston County District Attorney’s office were unable to participate in Spencer’s first appeal, which was argued instead against the Wyoming County DA’s office.