BECKLEY, W.Va. (AP) - A West Virginia judge denied requests for lighter sentences by two men convicted of repeatedly targeting women in purse-snatching robberies, and instead reaffirmed their 50-year sentences.
Raleigh County Circuit Judge Andrew Dimlich dismissed the requests last week, and noted that the sentences were 10 years less than what prosecutors requested for the crimes, the Register-Herald reported on Monday.
In March, Zachery Alexander Cernuto pleaded guilty to dozens of charges, including 41 counts of fraud with an access device, three counts of first-degree robbery and malicious assault. Cernuto admitted he and a co-defendant, James Gavin Lowe Jr., would drive beside older female victims and grab their purses. Lowe pleaded guilty to similar charges.
In one such instance the driver accelerated and dragged an 86-year-old woman across a parking lot, sending her to the hospital.
Cernuto’s attorney had asked the judge to reconsider the sentence handed down this spring, saying the defendant had a drug addiction problem. Lowe’s attorney requested the same, and argued Lowe’s roles in the crimes weren’t as large as Cernuto’s.
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