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Hyde Park man gets five years in federal prison on gun charge

A federal judge has sentenced a Hyde Park man to five years in prison for getting caught throwing a backpack with a gun up on a Blue Hill Avenue roof while police were chasing him on May 1, 2019, the US Attorney's office reports.

Kerry Charlotin, 30, pleaded guilty in January to a federal charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition - which arose from a 2018 conviction in West Roxbury Municipal Court on a charge of assault with a dangerous weapon - a gun.

Judge William Young's sentence is less than the almost 6 1/2-year sentence recommended by prosecutors and more than the 4 years proposed by his attorney. He will receive credit for the more than a year he has served in a Rhode Island prison after his arrest on the federal charge and through his sentencing.

Charlotin's attorney urged Young to take into account the fact that Charlotin grew up in a series of broken homes, starting with a mother who made money by performing voodoo. After a series of foster homes, she continued, Charlotin was given to his father, who often beat him with a belt, and his stepmother. He suffers from bipolar disorder and needs mental-health care, not a long prison term, she wrote, adding that while in detention at a Rhode Island prison awaiting sentencing, he earned his GED and trained as a barber.

A prosecutor, however, wrote that past lenient sentences - he was on parole for the West Roxbury conviction when arrested on Blue Hill Avenue - show that shorter sentences have not helped end his criminal life, which includes various robberies and a threat to shoot up a cab. Although some of his behavior might be due to his mental illness and substance abuse, others have resulted from clear decisions he made to commit acts of violence or potential violence. A long sentence would make him pay for his crime and serve as a warning to others not to do what he did, the prosecutor wrote.

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Comments

The shorter sentences also show that prison is not what this person needs in order to improve his life.

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I doubt it will ever change though.
Of all the people who should know you would think it would be the Judges who see these kinds of cases day after day, but they seem to lean toward leniency over toughness even though they see the results of leniency.

On May 17, 2018.... convicted of assault with a dangerous weapon - a gun - and larceny in West Roxbury Municipal Court. The judge in his case sentenced him to 18 months in the county jail, but suspended all but 114 days

a 2013 conviction in Suffolk Superior Court for larceny from a person, assault and battery and witness intimidation, for which he was sentenced to two years in jail, with all but five months suspended.

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Because what you believe is tough is actually weak. The simplest, laziest, easiest thing to do is say "just lock em up forever."

Figuring out how to actually stop this situation from happening is where the hard work is.

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Unless I'm missing something.
When a prosecutor recommends 5 years, that is not locking them up forever.
When a Court ignores the prosecutors recommendation and imposes months instead of years, it's a problem in my opinion.

I don't expect a court to stop crimes I expect them to make sure dangerous people are not treated with leniency when it's not deserved or warranted.

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Even though five years is far too lenient for this caeer criminal, it's better than the catch and release plan in Suffolk County courts.

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I honestly think many people know the system isn't great, but finding a better one isn't easy.

I don't know the actual rehab rate, but it's always going to be less than 100%, so people released from prison will re-offend.

Keeping people in prison long-term is expensive, and cruel (realizing that is open to argument), and risks occasionally harming the innocent or over-punishing those who really can rehab.

Meanwhile, "regular law-abiding people" (loose terminology - call them whatever you'd like but they write letters to the editor and they vote) want to feel safe. Every time someone is given a light sentence and then re-offends, the light sentence is an obvious target.

I don't know the solution, but it's clearly a difficult topic. Hence, our inertia, with high rates of costly imprisonment, inconsistent sentences, and plenty of anectotes to help everyone argue their perspectives.

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It's even more expensive to stop trafficking guns and drugs which is a losing cat and mouse battle.

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Keeping a violent dope peddler locked up costs tens of thousands. Treating people he shoots and addicts he created costs tens of millions.

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With no plans to rebuild the bridge.

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