Nearly seven years after a Colonie drug bust, a Brooklyn man who skipped his own trial has finally been sentenced to seven years and six months in prison. Nicomus James was convicted in absentia and remained free until authorities found him in New York City this spring.
James was arrested alongside his 46-year-old brother, Lewis, in November 2019 after Colonie police stopped them on Central Avenue. Authorities said they found crack cocaine and marijuana on the brothers, then found more drugs and drug-distribution paraphernalia in their room at the Red Carpet Inn. Lewis attended the 2022 trial, while Nicomus was absent and was ultimately convicted in absentia, according to Daily Voice.
New York's appellate record fills in some of the mechanics of the case. In the companion appeal, the court said a Nov. 3, 2019, traffic stop led to six baggies of crack cocaine on the passenger, a box of 500 glassine envelopes in the vehicle and a hotel-room search that recovered heroin and cocaine. The court upheld Lewis' convictions and his aggregate five-year prison term in January, according to the state appellate decision.
Years On The Run Ended In A Bench-Warrant Return
James remained free until May 2026, when authorities located him in New York City and returned him to Albany County on a bench warrant. On Friday, he was reported to have received the seven-year-six-month sentence from Albany County prosecutors, ending a long delay between his conviction and imprisonment, Daily Voice reported.
Why The Trial Could Continue Without Him
New York courts may allow a criminal trial to proceed without the defendant when the record shows the absence was deliberate and the defendant forfeited the right to be present. The state's appellate courts have emphasized that trial judges must make specific findings before proceeding in absentia, as outlined in a New York appellate ruling.
Here, the outcome was not a dismissal or a do-over: the jury's verdict remained in place while authorities looked for James. The sentence closes the most visible chapter of a drug case that began with a Colonie traffic stop in 2019 and ended, for James, with a prison term announced nearly seven years later.
