Two Defendants Sentenced in Greece Triple Murder

        ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul, Jr. announced today that Richard Anderson and Aston Johnson were each 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. A third defendant, Andrew Wright, will be sentenced on April 24, 2014.

“While nothing can bring back the lives of the victims, the multiple life sentences handed down today will ensure that the defendants who murdered them will never again walk the streets of this or any other community,” said U.S. Attorney Hochul. “This Office, working with our law enforcement partners at all levels, will continue to pursue members of other violent criminal organizations with the same vigor until each is brought to justice.”

In December, 2013, a jury convicted Anderson, Johnson and Wright 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 victims to death at the same time. 

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

The sentences are the result of an investigation conducted by the Greece Police Department under the direction of Chief Todd Baxter; 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 District Attorney’s Office, under the direction of District Attorney Sandra Doorley; the Monroe County Sheriff’s Department, under the direction Sheriff Patrick O’Flynn; the Monroe County Crime Analysis Center; the United States Postal Inspection Service, under the direction of Raymond Williams; 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.