The Riverhead man facing a slew of charges after allegedly slashing a man’s face last September has been released from jail after pleading guilty to misdemeanor assault and criminal mischief charges Sept. 8.
Anthony Wayne Smith, 57, was sentenced to one year on a third-degree assault charge and four months on the criminal mischief charge when he entered a guilty plea before State Supreme Court Justice Richard Ambro, according to the Suffolk district attorney’s office. As part of the plea bargain, Smith waived his right to appeal, the district attorney’s spokesperson said.
He had been in custody at the Suffolk County jail in lieu of $50,000 cash bail or $100,000 bond. His pretrial incarceration satisfied the sentence imposed.
The other charges in a 15-count indictment handed down against Smith last October were covered by the plea deal, according to the DA’s office. They included five menacing charges, two charges of obstruction of government administration, two criminal mischief charges, two additional assault charges and a weapons possession charge, according to the DA’s office.
Police said Smith slashed a 32-year-old man across the face with a knife in front of Mae’s Market on Railroad Avenue on Sept. 25, 2014 just before 8 p.m. in the evening.
During his arrest, Smith damaged police handcuffs and a computer keyboard being used by the arresting officer, according to a police press release issued about the arrest.
At the time of his arrest last year, Smith had more than a dozen criminal charges pending against him, including a May 2014 felony weapons charge in another incident on Railroad Avenue in which he was found in possession of a “gravity knife,” according to police.
He had been released on his own recognizance in all of those cases, some of which date back to 2008. He had appeared in Riverhead Justice Court on the “gravity knife” weapons possession charge just the day before the Railroad Avenue attack, according to court records.
It is not clear whether this month’s plea satisfied any or all of those prior charges, according to a spokesperson for the district attorney. However, Smith is due back in Riverhead Justice Court on Oct. 7, according to court records.
Riverhead Supervisor Sean Walter, who is the town police commissioner, said he was shocked by the disposition of Smith’s case.
“I’m very disappointed that someone with such serious charges would be offered a plea bargain involving so little time in jail,” Walter said.
The supervisor said last year he’d spoken to Suffolk District Attorney Thomas Spota about Smith, asking the prosecutor to seek “substantial bail.”
“I asked him to do everything he can to make sure this guy is not back on Riverhead streets,” Walter said in an interview last September.
Smith has two prior felony convictions, according to state corrections department records posted online: a weapons possession charge in 1979, for which he served 11 years in state prison; and a felony assault charge in 2002, for which he served six years in state prison.
Editor’s note: A criminal charge is an accusation. By law, a person charged with a crime is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
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