Donald Linderfils, 19, of Brooklyn, the man arrested for stabbing two people last February in Jailhouse Alley in Cazenovia, has been sentenced to 1 to 3 years in state prison — but only after he failed to show up for his sentencing appearance and was arrested for failure to appear in court.
Linderfils, a.k.a. “Prince,” is currently in the Madison County jail awaiting transfer to the New York State prison system, said Acting Madison County Sheriff John Ball.
Linderfils was arrested in New York City last June by Cazenovia Police Department officers after a Madison County Grand Jury indicted him for the February stabbing of two Cazenovia College students in Jailhouse Alley. He was charged with two counts of assault in the second degree, a class D felony, and one count of criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree, a class A misdemeanor.
Jury selection for Linderfils’ trial started Jan. 17, after he refused to accept a plea deal from the Madison County District Attorney’s Office, when Linderfils suddenly agreed to plead guilty to the top charge of assault in the second degree. Madison County Court Judge Patrick O’Sullivan decided that if Linderfils pleaded guilty to the top charge he would grant him youthful offender status, which both seals the criminal records of the case and changes the sentencing parameters from a determinate sentence, as was recommended by the DA, to an indeterminate sentence.
District Attorney William Gabor said at the time that he “strenuously, strenuously opposed” granting youthful offender status to Linderfils, but the decision was at the discretion of the judge. “I recommended two years in state prison with two years’ post release supervision,” Gabor said.
Linderfils was released on bond in January and went home to New York City, and was scheduled to reappear in Madison County Court on April 13. That date was rescheduled to June 19 and then rescheduled again to July 5.
When Linderfils did not appear in court at 9 a.m. on July 5, O’Sullivan issued a bench warrant for his arrest for failure to appear in court, said Cazenovia Police Chief Michael Hayes, whose department received the warrant. About an hour later, Cazenovia police were informed that Linderfils had turned himself in at the Madison County Jail, where he was arrested by a Madison County sheriff’s deputy, Hayes said.
Linderfils was subsequently sentenced to the agreed upon plea deal of 1 to 3 years indeterminate sentence in state prison with youthful offender status, Ball said.