Leon Jiggetts faces decision on plea deal offers

The New Jersey man who police believe shot a teenage drug dealer in Springfield in June is considering an updated plea deal offer from the state.
http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20150309/NEWS02/703099977

Published March 9, 2015 in the Rutland Herald Leon Jiggetts faces decision on plea deal offers By ERIC FRANCIS CORRESPONDENT WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — The New Jersey man who police believe shot a teenage drug dealer in Springfield in June is considering an updated plea deal offer from the state. Leon Jiggetts, 27, of Newark, is facing 10 felony charges including attempted second-degree murder, for allegedly shooting 19-year-old Joseph Atkinson during a home invasion on Summer Street as well as a series of undercover drug sting operations. He is also facing charges for his alleged attempt to fiddle with witness testimony following his arrest via letters sent from jail. On Thursday afternoon, Jiggetts was brought out from the Springfield prison to White River Junction criminal court where he was talked out of an effort he had launched several weeks ago to try to get the court to appoint him a different lawyer. Jiggetts said to Judge Karen Carroll that he had asked for permission to drop Daniel Maguire, his court-appointed defense attorney, because he had not seen any investigation or depositions taking place. “Although I take issue with some of his representations, Mr. Jiggetts has been kept aware of his case. We’ve transcribed lots of discovery and sent it to him,” Maguire told Carroll. In the end, Maguire suggested it appeared to him that Jiggetts was simply conflicted about whether he should accept the “global” plea deal that prosecutors have offered him, a deal which was updated and “sweetened” a bit Thursday by Windsor County State’s Attorney Michael Kainen just minutes before the hearing began. “He doesn’t necessarily think (the offer) is in his best interests,” Maguire told the judge, adding, “But I think he wants a second opinion quite frankly. I won’t stand in his way (if he wants a new attorney) but I can continue to represent him if he wants,” Maguire said. Although the details of what the state has been offering to Jiggetts if he were to decide to change his pleas to guilty have not been made public, Kainen also spoke up during the hearing and suggested that the clock is ticking on his offer. “The federal government has offered to take some of my (caseload) that has to do with either heroin or guns, which this case does,” Kainen said, suggesting that if Jiggetts were not to reach an agreement in the next few months with the state he could find himself facing “federal adoption” of his case which implies a harsher sentencing scheme than Vermont’s. “I’ve (offered) him a really good deal,” Kainen told the judge. “If he doesn’t want to take (it), that’s fine with me, he can go deal with the federal system.” Kainen said the offer he conveyed Thursday to Jiggetts, was “in line with” a similar offer he has made in recent weeks to co-defendant Jabbar Chandler, which Chandler has reportedly accepted and will formally plead out to later this month, but Jiggetts’ deal included “more time because was the one who did the actual shooting,” Kainen said. Maguire said his feeling was that Jiggetts has a case that is more likely to resolve with a plea deal than go to an actual trial and he said “with a couple more weeks” of negotiations both sides could probably agree on the outcome. “This isn’t a medical practice so we don’t do second opinions,” Carroll said from the bench, “The court does, however, want to make sure the defendant has competent counsel and he does.” Speaking directly to Jiggetts the judge continued, “There is a lot to think about… as to whether you are going to accept an offer the state has given you or face the chance, if you don’t, that your case might be prosecuted by the federal government. ... I’m confident that attorney Maguire has given you the information that you need to make that decision and I think frankly that it would be a waste of time for the court to grant your motion and appoint another attorney in your case. I see no grounds for it at this time.” As the hearing was wrapping up, Carroll noted that she had received a letter Jiggetts wrote her from jail just last month and asked if both sides had seen it. “I received it and actually I found it heartening and it was one of the things that caused me to make the (updated) offer that I did to him,” Kainen replied, adding, “I thought it showed some redeeming qualities and, although I don’t know that it is advisable for defendants to write under these circumstances, I found it helpful.” “As did I,” Carroll said, as Jiggetts nodded in appreciation and said, “Thank you.” In the neatly hand-written two-page letter dated Feb. 17, which was included in the court’s public file on the case, Jiggetts avoided any direct discussion of June’s home invasion and shooting while explaining to the judge that he had been raised under difficult circumstance in Newark by his grandmother after his mother killed herself when he was 4 years old. “I never met father so my grandmother raised me while my grandfather was off living life as most city men do (at) 1,000 mph,” Jiggetts wrote. “I never really had any direction nor discipline to grow from. No one every really sat me down and explained the difference between being successful and unsuccessful. I’ve always been blind from too young (of an) age of the Fantasy of Big Living and quick ways to get there — ‘Drugs and Gangs’ — I got lost early in my childhood with this fantasy,” Jiggetts continued. “I’ve been lost and confused and wish I could change the way I’ve been living so I wouldn’t have to fear the police and other bad people. I only wanted to be cool, hip and have everyone look at me with the nice clothes on. Before I knew it I was trapped in a lifestyle that I couldn’t see a way out of. It only got worse. Fun times were fun, but bad times were horrible and scary. I’m glad to have my life back even though I’m in jail. The personal conflict has become too much and I’m going to do anything to rid my life of this illness and live among honest people and work like honest people.” “The lifestyle I’ve been living has been nothing but trouble for me. This is the most trouble I’ve been in my whole life and its definitely been a wake up call for me. I have two sons I need to be there for to teach them the right ways of living and about education so they could arm themselves with skills needed to be successful in life.” Jiggetts blamed his lack of “a positive role model” growing up for his situation, saying, “This conflict has broken me. It has forced me to confront the wrong in my life. I don’t like who I have become.” “The things I’ve done wrong in my life have affected and brought shame, humiliation, and embarrassment to myself and my family. I don’t like the situation I’m in legally that is challenging my life. I don’t know what to do or who to trust,” Jiggers wrote, as he concluded, “I’ve seen enough and done enough wrong to know that I don’t want to continue on Wrong Boulevard. I want to live on Right Avenue.”