KINGSTON –An 18-year-old Kingston man was sentenced by Ulster County Court Judge Donald Williams on Thursday to 17 years to life in prison for the murder of Mark Lancaster on Sawkill Road in Kingston last December following a marijuana robbery.
Kevin Gardener committed the robbery and murder together with accomplices Maurice Stansberry, Sr., who was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for the same murder, and his son, Maurice Stansberry, Jr., who is awaiting sentencing.
Trial evidence showed that Stansberry, Sr. shot and killed Lancaster around noontime on December 1, 2018, after a gunpoint robbery of marijuana from Lancaster’s teenage son at Sawkill Trailer Park.
In his plea in July and again at sentencing on Thursday, Gardener took the blame for shooting Lancaster. The District Attorney’s Office view of the case indicates the evidence strongly supports that Gardener was a full participant but was not the trigger man.
