Molly Crane-Newman
New York Daily News
NEW YORK — A teenager who led a stunning attack on a city correction officer in 2018 resulting in lifelong injuries has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Steven Espinal, 18, an alleged Bloods member facing attempted murder charges in a separate case, was sentenced Wednesday at Bronx Supreme Court to a decade behind bars for directing the near-fatal attack on Officer Jean Souffrant in February 2018.
Souffrant suffered bleeding on the brain and fractures to his spine after Espinal and four others pummeled him inside a vestibule at a facility on Rikers Island.
“The Officer suffered a horrendous injury while performing his duty as a civil servant. He has been an inspiration in his long recovery and through rehabilitation,” Bronx D.A. Darcel Clark said. Espinal’s sentence will run concurrent with a 10-year sentence in the attempted murder case.
“We had hoped he would have to serve more time to send a stronger message that gang violence will not be tolerated on Rikers Island,” Clark said.
In a recorded phone call before the attack, Espinal stated he was going to “knock out this super cop,” police sources told the Daily News at the time.
The then-17-year-old delivered the first punch that knocked Souffrant to the ground.
“As a result, I suffered from a brain injury and a fractured spine,” Officer Souffrant said during his victim impact statement. “We come to work, we get verbally assaulted on a daily basis. You get splashed, you get punched, but you still come.”
With tears in his eyes, Officer Souffrant addressed Espinal directly in court.
“Espinal, I worked with you for almost a month. Did I ever disrespect you? Do you think my life was worth taking away from me that day because I was doing my job?”
Souffrant, 40, of Haiti, spent “significant time” in intensive care following the attack, according to prosecutors, and has not returned to work since.
“It has been to date and remains the last day he went to work,” Assistant District Attorney James Brennan said in court.
The young man, who wore an Islamic topi and a beige prison uniform to court on Wednesday, apologized to the corrections officer and to his own mother, who wiped tears from her eyes as her son was sentenced.
“I’m sorry for everything I’ve done to Officer Souffrant and his family,” Espinal said. “I’m sorry to my mother for everything I’ve done. If I could, I’d take back everything I did.”
Upon imposing Espinal’s sentence, Bronx Justice Barry Warhit described the job of a correction officer as “thankless.”
“There aren’t any uplifting moments there,” he said.
Though Espinal qualified for youthful offender status, the judge sentenced him to a decade in prison — slightly deviating from the 12 years recommended by prosecutors.
“He’s getting 10 years in large measure because of what he did to the officer who so eloquently spoke,” he said. “His youth is squandered — that’s his fault.”
Two other inmates who participated in the vicious attack — both of them under the age of 21 at the time — were also sentenced Wednesday, though they received considerably lesser sentences.
Samson Walston, 19, got five years behind bars, while Devin Burns, 17, received a three-year sentence.
Several of Souffrant’s coworkers attended the sentencing in a show of solidarity.
“When these type of incidents happen it not only affects the correction officer, it affects his family. Everything about his life,” said Elias Husamudeen, president of the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association.
“We hope that this message goes out to the inmates who assault correction officers on a daily basis — who continue to commit crimes in jail as well, as they did when they were on the street.”
———
©2019 New York Daily News