Port Jervis major drug trafficker Richard McInturff was sentenced on Feb. 8 by Judge Hyun Chin Kim to almost 20 years in state prison.
Operating as a major trafficker is one of the most serious crimes in the New York Penal Code, carrying a maximum penalty of a life sentence.
McInturff got 15 years in prison for being a major trafficker, two to four years for trying to escape from the police station, and two to four years for committing assault in jail.
The latter two are to run concurrently with each other and consecutively with the first sentence.
Judge Kim said at the sentencing hearing that though McInturff pleaded guilty to his charges, he violated the plea agreement by committing a new crime while being held at the county jail.
McInturff told the judge that he was sorry for what he did.
His father, 65-year-old Larry McInturff, was also sentenced to six months in jail for tampering with evidence, as recommended by prosecutor Alexis Gregory.
Rory Brady, the lawyer for Larry McInturff, had argued at the hearing that it was hard for his client to witness the sentencing of his son and then go to jail himself on the same day, adding that the elder McInturff has health issues and jail would be hard for him.
Larry McInturff told the judge that he was sorry for what he did and that even to this day, he was afraid to go into the room where police found the drugs.
He was taken into custody right after sentencing.
In March 2021, Port Jervis police and Orange County special operations deputies executed a search warrant at McInturff’s residence in Port Jervis, where they found nearly 8,000 two-inches-by-one-inch bags of heroin and fentanyl, according to the case’s lead detective Mike Decker.
Decker told The Epoch Times that McInturff obtained the drugs from sources in Paterson, New Jersey, and intended to sell them in the Port Jervis area; each bag can be sold for about $10 on the street.
McInturff attempted to escape while in custody at the Port Jervis Police Department, but officers caught him before he was able to run out of the station, Decker said.
While being held at the county jail, McInturff called his father to conceal a key ring, which turned out to be one of the key pieces of evidence in the case, and his father obliged.
In December 2021, a grand jury indicted McInturff on five counts of operating as a major trafficker, criminal drug possession, criminal drug use, escape, and tampering with physical evidence.
His father was indicted on one count of tampering with physical evidence.
Both pleaded guilty last July; McInturff pleaded guilty to only two charges—operating as a major drug trafficker and escape in the first degree.
