BUFFALO – The buffalo area man convicted of intentionally killing a Silver Creek native and Air National Guardsman by throwing him down a flight of stairs of a Buffalo bar will have his case retried.
On Tuesday State Supreme Court judge Penny Wolfgang granted 36 year-old Jeffrey Basil’s defense team’s motion to toss out the guilty verdict of second-degree murder and tampering with physical evidence.
Wolfgang said one of the jurors failed to inform attorneys of her prior military experience and arrest record during jury selection right before Basil’s trial. As a result, the case will have to e retried.
In January Basil was found guilty in the death of 28 year-old William Sager, Jr. The jury found that Basil – who was working as a bar manager – intentionally killed Sager by shoving him down a staircase at the now-closed Molly’s Pub on the morning of May 11, 2014. The incident resulted in Sager’s head being slammed into a concrete floor at the bottom of the stairs. He died after about two months in a coma at the Erie County Medical Center.
Leave a Reply