Extra: For Murder While Robbing Bronx Smoke Shop Payne Sentenced to 22 1/2 Years in Prison - story and poem here

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by Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Book Substack

SDNY COURTHOUSE, Jan 23 – For shooting a man in the head and killing in the course of the armed robbery of a smoke shop in the South Bronx back on November 20, 2019, Anthony Payne was up for sentencing on January 23, 2025 before U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Chief Judge Laura Taylor Swain. Inner City Press was there, thread:

Defense lawyer, arguing for a 12 year sentence, tells judge "No one is watching this case." Inner City Press as only media here will live tweet, thread below

AUSA Domenic Gentile: It's the people who sold him the gun we want to hear about this.

Defendant Anthony Payne: I pray to God... I am truly sorry [Victim's family member hwre in the gallery expresses skepticism] Judge: Please stay quietly with me as I reflect

Judge: The sentencing guideline is 292 months to 300 months. On Nov 20, 2019 Mr Payne drove from Brooklyn to a smoke shop in the Bronx to rob it. He shot the victim in the head. Then he moved to Georgia. Later he was arrested. He is 33. His mother died in 2016

Judge: He worked at an airplane catering company at JFK airport called SkyChef. He says he needed more money for his family. He clearly has mental health problems, but there has been no treatment at the MDC.

The government let him plead not the murder, with a 25 year cap. The victim had a daughter, who will grow up without a father.

Mr. Payne, please rise... I sentence you to 270 months [22 and 1/2 years] in prison.

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