GOSHEN – Orange County District Attorney David Hoovler announced that on March 3, 2022, his office secured a conviction against a Brooklyn man on felony weapons and forgery charges.
Kaeshawn Kerr, 27, was sentenced to a total of twelve years in state prison, and five years post-release supervision, in connection with illegally possessing a handgun and forged driver’s license. On September 15, 2021, Kerr was found guilty of Criminal Possession of a Weapon and Criminal Possession of a Forged Instrument. Kerr was convicted without being in court for the trial. He had been out on bond and failed to return to court. Under state law, he was convicted “in absentia”.
On January 1, 2021, Kerr had been driving a car in the Town of Goshen, when he was stopped by a New York State Trooper for speeding. After giving the Trooper a false name, Kerr fled in the vehicle to a nearby store. Troopers waited outside of the store and when Kerr emerged he attempted to flee on foot. During the chase, Kerr threw away a loaded 9 mm Smith and Wesson semi-automatic handgun and a forged Connecticut driver’s license on him in the name of “Dennis Charette”.
In January 2021, bail had been set for Kerr in the amount of fifty-thousand dollars cash or one-hundred-thousand dollars secured bond or two-hundred-fifty-thousand dollars partially secured bond. Kerr eventually posted a bond and was at liberty. Kerr had last appeared in Orange County Court on August 19, 2021, when the date for the trial was set. Kerr, who had been ordered to return to court for the trial, failed to appear as directed on September 9, 2021.
Kerr was arrested on January 11, 2022, by an Orange County Sheriff’s Investigator assigned to the United States Marshal’s Service Fugitive Task Force after jumping bail. In addition to the weapons and forged instrument charges, Kerr was charged by an Orange County Grand Jury in a separate indictment with Bail Jumping. Kerr faces an additional two to four years in state prison on the new charge. Kerr is next scheduled to appear in County Court in connection with the bail jumping charge on April 18, 2022.
“Those who voluntarily choose to illegally absent themselves from court proceedings not only end up forfeiting valuable rights to participate in their own trials but also generally end up in a worse position,” said Hoovler. “I had no doubt that this defendant’s repeated attempts to avoid apprehension and punishment would ultimately prove futile. “
