Swansea Man Sentenced to Prison
Bristol County District Attorney’s Office
Thomas M. Quinn III
District Attorney
Press Release
August 14, 2017
A 32-year-old Swansea man who forced his girlfriend to elude police while at knife point in Seekonk last September has been sentenced to serve three years in state prison, Bristol County District Attorney Thomas M. Quinn III announced.
Jaron Albanese pleaded guilty late last week in Fall River Superior Court to a five-count indictment charging him with kidnapping, violating a restraining order, resisting arrest and two counts of assault with a dangerous weapon.
On September 6, 2016 Seekonk Police officers pulled over a vehicle being driven by a female with the defendant as the front seat passenger. The officer checked both of the vehicle’s occupants’ identifications, and quickly learned the defendant was wanted on a warrant out of Fall River.
After the defendant was removed from the car, he immediately became aggressive with the officer. The defendant refused to abide by any of the officer’s commands, and begins to flee on foot. The defendant then dove back into the car through an opened window, brandished a knife, pointed it at his girlfriend and yelled, “drive bitch”. Although the victim pled for the defendant to stop, she did drive away.
The vehicle is tailed by police to the Mary’s Motor Lodge where the defendant demands that his girlfriend go into the hotel with him. After a seven hour stand-off with police, the defendant eventually came out of the hotel and surrendered.
During the pretrial phases of the case, it became increasingly clear to prosecutors that the victim would not cooperate with the prosecution of the case. But despite this setback, police and prosecutors secured surveillance footage from area businesses, which showed most of the incident. This, coupled with the officer’s own observations and police reports, eventually led to a guilty plea by the defendant last week.
The defendant has a 21 page criminal record and has served numerous stints in the house of corrections. He also has had five separate women get restraining orders against him on numerous occasions.
During his plea hearing last week in Fall River Superior Court, Judge Thomas McGuire sentenced the defendant to serve three years in state prison to be followed by two years of supervised probation upon his release.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Melissa Hendrie.
“Unfortunately, the victim would not cooperate with our office. This defendant has a lengthy criminal record filled with violence. He is a danger to the community,” District Attorney Quinn said. “Fortunately, there were surveillance cameras that captured everything on tape. They have become an important tool in solving and proving serious crimes.”
Contact:
Gregg Miliote
Director of Communications
508-997-0711
774-292-9576–cell