BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — The Chautauqua County District Attorney's Office announced that a Fredonia man has been sentenced to prison after he was found guilty of kidnapping a teen with autism in 2016.
According to the DA, 46-year-old Samuel Saeli, formerly of Fredonia, was sentenced to 19 years in state prison and 20 years of post-release supervision. Saeli was convicted by a Chautauqua County jury of second-degree kidnapping as a sexually motivated felony in June for the 2016 kidnapping of a teen with autism from the Walmart in Fredonia.
The district attorney's office said this was Saeli's third jury trial for this crime. The first trial was back in 2017 and ended in a hung jury. The second trial was in 2018 and resulted in Saeli being convicted and sentenced to 16 years of imprisonment plus 10 years of parole supervision. That conviction was later overturned by the Appellate Division, Fourth Department, which then ordered a retrial.
Chautauqua County District Attorney Jason Schmidt was lead counsel for the prosecution at the trial and released a statement that said in part:
“After eight years of litigation following this horrific crime, we can now finally close the book on Mr. Saeli knowing that he will remain behind bars where he won’t harm any more children. Although courts are generally required to adhere to their prior sentence following a retrial, I sought to obtain the maximum prison and post-release sentence provided under the law, that of 25 years of imprisonment plus 25 years of post-release supervision, which would have represented a significant and unprecedented upward modification of Mr. Saeli’s previous sentence. Special thanks goes to my colleague Ms. Woodard for constructing the legal framework which Judge Wojtasek ultimately followed to sentence higher.
Although I did not get as much prison time as I wanted, 19 years is not insubstantial and Mr. Saeli now faces double the supervision time he will spend on parole when he is eventually released. He will then be subject to the rules and restrictions imposed upon convicted sex offenders with the threat of further incarceration should he violate those restrictions.
It’s my hope that yesterday’s sentence serves as a deterrence to other child molesters and those who prey on the vulnerable who might consider acting on their sick urges. To those persons reading this, know that justice delayed does not equate with justice denied, that law enforcement does not stop, tire or delay in its efforts to hold criminals accountable for the harm they perpetrate on the innocent, no matter how protracted the proceedings become, and we will eventually catch, try and convict you; that’s our promise."
