| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
 Judge's remarks on sentencing Snow | 66.47 KB |
| US Attorney's sentencing memorandum | 63.73 KB |
For Dondre Snow, his appearance in court yesterday was nothing new - save that this time he's facing life in prison without parole.
At 22, Snow, one of two men charged with the murder of Maurice Scott on Old Colony Avenue on Saturday, is already considered a career criminal. On the 1-6 federal sentencing guidelines, with 6 being the worst of the worst, he'd already made level 4 by the time he turned 19.
Part of the evidence against Snow, prosecutors say, is tracking data from a GPS bracelet he was wearing as a condition of his bail on earlier drug charges - drug charges he got arrested for after his release from federal prison on Sept. 4 on completing a two-year term for drug dealing, a term that also came with a six-year probation period.
The federal sentence was his first punishment as an adult for a criminal rap sheet that started when he was just 13 and which includes numerous citations for committing crimes while on parole or bail for other crimes, including drug sales, robbery and assault and battery.
A sentencing memorandum and remarks by the judge in his federal case lay out the essentials of Snow's life: He was born to a cocaine addict and, as a newborn, had to be treated for cocaine withdrawal. Given up for adoption, he was eventually diagnosed with ADHD and had behavioral issues in school. And he joined the gang at Warren Gardens, the Roxbury housing project where he lived and quickly became known as a drug dealer not afraid to use violence - or to ignore conditions of release on earlier charges.
His arrest on the federal drug charges came in June, 2011, while he was under DYS supervision for numerous crimes, including assault and battery. In August, 2011, Boston Police arrested him for illegal gun possession.
In a request for a 24-month sentence filed in 2012 - federal prosecutors wrote:
The tragedy here is that Dondre Snow's only response to everything the criminal justice system and a battery of social workers and mental health care professionals have done for him to date is to commit more crime. His persistent offending confirms that he is a serious risk to himself and his community and among the individuals still most likely to recidivate.
Dondre Snow is only 19 years old. But he has already been in the criminal justice system for six years without interruption. ... During that time, he has acquired 5 determinations of delinquency, violated probation on every case in which it was imposed, had his DYS Parole revoked 8 times, remains on DYS supervision until the age of 21 as a result of being prosecuted as a Youthful Offender after committing his second robbery (in which he and an accomplice kicked and beat a victim in order to steal a phone), and has repeatedly committed new crimes while under criminal justice supervision.
When he was arrested for Scott's murder, Snow gave a Dorchester address. One of the conditions of his sentencing on the federal drug charges was that he stay away from Warren Gardens.
Innocent, etc.