CORAM MAN SENTENCED TO 10 YEARS IN PRISON AFTER HE WAS CAUGHT WITH A LOADED HANDGUN AND HEROIN DURING 2021 TRAFFIC STOP

(SUFFOLK COUNTY, N.Y.) – Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney today announced today that Lavon Dawson, 27, of Coram, was sentenced to 10 years in prison followed by five years of post-release supervision after a jury found him guilty in March 2023 for gun and drug charges that stemmed from a traffic stop.

“This defendant was not even out of prison for a full year when he was caught with an illegal gun and heroin,” said District Attorney Tierney. “Now he is headed right back to prison for another 10 years. How many times does it take to break the law for the lesson to resonate? The profiting of poisoning others with dangerous drugs and carrying illegal weapons in Suffolk will guarantee you a stay in prison for a significant time.”

On March 27, 2023, Dawson was found guilty after a jury trial heard before Supreme Court Justice, the Honorable Richard Ambro, for one count of Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Second Degree, a Class C violent felony, and two counts of Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance in the Third Degree, a Class B felony and one count of Resisting Arrest, a Class A misdemeanor.

The evidence at trial established that on February 27, 2021, members of the Suffolk County Police Department conducted a routine traffic stop in the vicinity of Barbara Lane in Medford.  During the traffic stop the officers asked Dawson, who was seated in the front passenger seat of the vehicle, to step out of the vehicle. After Dawson exited the vehicle, the officers observed a loaded .380 caliber pistol directly below his seat.

When officers attempted to arrest Dawson, the defendant disobeyed orders from the police and fled on foot over fences and through the yards of numerous residences. The officers pursued the defendant on foot, eventually apprehending him after they found him hiding in a cellar stairwell of a nearby residence.

Along Dawson’s path of flight, officers recovered a plastic bag containing over half an ounce of heroin near his wallet on the ground.  In addition to the loaded pistol, officers also recovered a digital scale and cutting agent from the vehicle the defendant fled from.

Dawson was previously convicted in 2014 in Suffolk County for Robbery in the First Degree, a Class B violent felony, for which he was sentenced to eight years in prison. He was released in July 2020, one year prior to the arrest on this case.

On June 8, 2023, Dawson was sentenced by Judge Ambro to 10 years in prison followed by five years of post-release supervision. He was represented by Ian Fitzgerald, Esq.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Donald Barclay and Acting Deputy Bureau Chief Jessica Spencer of the Violent Criminal Enterprises Bureau.

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