LOCKPORT — A Falls man will likely spend the rest of his life behind bars, despite not being sentenced as a “persistent felony offender.”
Niagara County Court Judge Caroline Wojtaszek said Tuesday that she believed there was enough evidence to find Curtis Griggs, 38, of the Falls, was a “persistent felon.” But the judge said that she believed she had enough “sentencing discretion” without making a finding on Grigg’s criminal record.
Wojtaszek sentenced Griggs to 70 years in prison for his role in a series of violent felonies committed in 2022, including two counts of attempted murder. Griggs received a sentence of 25 years behind bars for his conviction on counts of attempted murder and assault stemming from the shooting of two men with a high-powered rifle during an attack on April 4, 2022, plus an additional 10 years in prison for criminal possession of a weapon during that attack.
The judge also sentenced Griggs to another 25 years behind bars for his conviction on charges of attempted murder and assault against a different victim in a shooting incident that took place on July 9, 2022. Wojtaszek added an additional 10 years in prison for Griggs’ criminal possession of a weapon in the July attack.
The sentences will all run consecutively.
Griggs was convicted on the charges after a three-week-long February jury trial. The Niagara County Court jury that heard the case took just three hours to reach a verdict.
In addition to the attempted murder and weapons possession convictions, the jury also found Griggs guilty of third-degree assault in connection with an attack on a woman on June 25, 2022. Griggs was acquitted of first-degree rape and first-degree criminal sex act charges from that incident.
Prosecutors had asked Wojtaszek to find that Griggs met the requirements of a “persistent felony offender” by having more than two felony convictions on his record before the 2022 charges were filed. That finding would have meant that Griggs could have faced a sentence of between 90 years to life in prison.
“The sentence imposed today, what amounts to removing this individual from society for the rest of his life, is the only appropriate response to the level of violence he exhibited,” Niagara County District Attorney Brian Seaman said after the sentencing. “The victims in this case will continue to live with their injuries. The defendant will not have the opportunity to victimize others.”
Seaman said Griggs had embarked on “one of the most violent crime sprees in this county in recent memory.”
“He gunned down multiple people in the street, nearly killing two individuals,” Seaman said. “The defendant was unsuccessful in killing his intended targets, wholly due to the work of our first responders and emergency room professionals.”
Griggs was taken into custody after an armed standoff with Falls police that closed down Pine Avenue on the sunny summer Saturday afternoon of July 9, 2022. Early in the morning that day, Falls police patrol officers had responded to the area of 15th Street and Pine Avenue for a call of “shots fired.”
Moments before that call, South End officers had reported hearing gunshots, but were unsure of where they were coming from.
Officers said when they arrived on Pine Avenue and 15th Street, they found a 28-year-old man suffering from what were described as “numerous serious gunshot wounds.” The victim was treated at the scene and then transported to the Erie County Medical Center in Buffalo.
Crime Scene Unit detectives recovered spent shell casings near the victim and investigators said they later determined that Griggs was the “shooter” in that incident.
By mid-afternoon on July 9, Crime Scene Unit Detective Rashad Travis advised dispatchers and other officers that he had spotted Griggs walking in the 2500 block of Pine Avenue. At that time, detectives already had an arrest warrant for Griggs in connection with a shooting that occurred on April 4 in the 1100 block of 19th Street.
As Travis and other officers attempted to take Griggs into custody, he ran into a multi-unit apartment building in the 2500 block of Pine Avenue. Officers surrounded the building and cut off traffic on Pine Avenue from 24th to 26th streets for roughly two hours.
Detectives said that “due to the nature of the charges Griggs was facing”, a decision was made to activate the Falls Police Emergency Response Team and bring in NFPD crisis negotiators. Deputies from the Niagara County Sheriff’s Office, officers with the New York State Park Police and troopers with the New York State Police also assisted at the scene.
As ERT officers began deploying around the apartment building, Griggs came out and surrendered. He was taken into custody without further incident.