Jamaican Man Sentenced for Role in Greece Triple Murder and for Assaulting Federal Jail Guards

     ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul, Jr. announced today that Andrew Wright, 44, a citizen of Jamaica, was sentenced to four consecutive life terms, plus five years, by U.S. District Judge Charles J. Siragusa for participating in a large, multistate marijuana distribution conspiracy and murdering three men in furtherance of that conspiracy in the Town of Greece in March, 2010.

“Today’s sentencing brings to a successful conclusion a very violent and tragic episode in our community,” said U.S. Attorney Hochul. “These defendants will never again inflict further violence on the residents of Western New York. This case is also a great example of the cooperative efforts of our Office working closely with our law enforcement partners at all levels. We will continue to pursue members of other violent criminal organizations with the same vigor until such gangs are no more.”

In December, 2013, a jury convicted Wright and his two co-defendants, Richard Anderson and Aston Johnson of murdering Robert Moncriffe, Mark Wisdom and Christopher Green in Greece on March 9, 2010. The evidence presented by the Government at trial established that in the days prior to March 9, the defendants traveled to Rochester from Phoenix, Arizona and planned the murders. The evidence also showed that Anderson, Johnson and Wright targeted the victims because they believed Moncriffe, Wisdom and Green were cheating them out of proceeds from the sale of marijuana. The defendants went to the apartment in Greece where the three victims lived. They bound and gagged Christopher Green and waited for Moncriffe and Wisdom to arrive home. Once they arrived, the defendants shot the three men to death at the same time.

In a separate case, Wright was also sentenced for assaulting two federal guards at the Buffalo Federal Detention Facility in Batavia New York.  A jury convicted Wright of these assaults in May 2011, but sentencing had been postponed pending the outcome of the triple homicide and marijuana distribution case.  Judge Siragusa sentenced Wright to 20 years on each of the two counts of assaulting the federal guards, such sentences to run concurrent to each other, but consecutive to the life terms. 

In addition to sentencing the defendant to life in prison, Judge Siragusa also imposed a $1,000,000 forfeiture judgment against defendant Wright as well as the forfeiture of three guns seized at the house in Phoenix, Arizona.

Co-defendants, Richard Anderson and Aston Johnson, had been previously sentenced on March 11, 2014, to life sentences.

Today’s sentencing is the result of an investigation conducted by the Greece Police Department under the direction of then Chief Todd Baxter and current Chief Patrick Phelan; the Federal Bureau of Investigation; the New York State Police, under the direction of Major Mark Koss; the Rochester Police Department under the direction of Chief Michael Ciminelli; the U.S. Marshal’s Service under the direction of Marshal Charles Salina; the Monroe County Sheriff’s Department, under the direction Sheriff Patrick O’Flynn; the Monroe County Crime Analysis Center; the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Boston Division, under the direction of Acting Inspector in Charge, Shelly A. Binkowski; the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge James C. Spero; the U.S. Border Patrol, under the direction of Patrol Agent in Charge Tom Pocorobba, Jr,; the New York/New Jersey High Intensity Drug Trafficking area; the Franklin County, Ohio Sheriff’s Department; the Arizona Department of Public Safety; and the Los Angeles Police Department.

The investigation of the assault of the two federal guards in Batavia was handled by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Enforcement and Removal Operations, under the direction of Field Office Director, Michael T. Phillips.