POUGHKEEPSIE – Nicholas Gast, 35, considered to be the ringleader of a group that robbed men based on their nationality, was sentenced to prison on Friday, after being convicted by a jury in June of this year. After adding up the penalties for the 25 felony charges, Dutchess County Court Judge Edward McLoughlin sentenced the habitual felon to 40 years to life in prison.
Judge McLoughlin told Gast, “You should never get out of prison, but if you do, you should be supervised for the rest of your life for the safety of the public.”
Gast was already a three-time convicted felon on parole in December of 2021 when he rallied three accomplices to join him in attacking and robbing “Mexicans” who lived nearby.
The three accomplices all entered guilty pleas rather than go to trial and received much lighter sentences. Gast refused to take a plea offered by the Dutchess County District Attorney’s Office and chose to go to trial.
At the trial’s opening, Senior Assistant District Attorney David Kunca, assisted by ADA Scott Johnson, told the jury that Gast convinced the three accomplices to join him in attacking the two victims because they appeared to be Mexican. The defendant’s attorney, Cynthia Kasnia, in turn, told the jury that the evidence was all circumstantial and that her client was not present at the time of the attack.
The jury took a little more than one day to find Gast guilty.
Gast’s attorney passed away before Friday’s sentencing and Gast was represented by attorney Anthony Cillis as the decades-long prison sentence was handed down by Judge McLoughlin.
Senior ADA David Kunca, the prosecutor, explained the defendant’s actions, saying, “Mr. Gast was already a three-time convicted felon on parole. That night, the defendant armed himself with an illegal handgun and rounded up the group of known criminals with whom he committed these senseless and cowardly acts upon unsuspecting strangers. While the acts themselves were vile, the defendant’s motivation was even more wicked. The defendant chose his victims based on his own perception about their ethnicity.”
Kunca was pleased with the decades-long sentence handed down by Judge McLoughlin. “The People, therefore, believed that a sentence ensuring lifetime supervision would be appropriate. The Court obviously agreed.”
