Bellport man accused of kidnapping Patchogue girl rejects Suffolk DA's plea offers

A Bellport man accused of kidnapping a Patchogue girl who prosecutors say was later trafficked by others appears headed for trial after rejecting multiple plea offers Thursday.

Alton Harrell, 37, turned down proposals from the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office for a 15-years-to-life sentence for a first-degree kidnapping charge or to alternatively serve 20 years on the lesser offense of second-degree kidnapping.

“The maximum [for first-degree kidnapping] is 25 years to life," acting State Supreme Court Justice Karen Wilutis informed Harrell of what he could face if convicted at trial. “The people have offered significantly less than that."

In addition to kidnapping, Harrell is charged with felony counts of burglary, second-degree rape, patronizing prostitution and patronizing a minor. He is also charged with petit larceny for allegedly stealing a bracelet from the girl, who Newsday is not naming because she is a minor and the victim of alleged and adjudicated sex crimes.

Prosecutors have said the girl’s 25-day ordeal began on Dec. 9, 2024, after she contacted Harrell, whom she had known for nearly a year in a relationship that became sexual.

The teen, who was 14 at the time, spent that night with Harrell inside an unoccupied house on Doane Avenue in Bellport, Assistant District Attorney Dana Castaldo said at an arraignment in February 2025. He gave her crack cocaine for sex knowing she was underage, the prosecutor alleged.

Castaldo had said the investigation revealed Harrell told the teen he would take care of her and that she would never have to go home, before picking her up at the house she shared with her father and stepmother. Harrell allegedly abandoned her the next day, leaving with her jewelry.

"This defendant set the entire chain of events that followed in motion by victimizing someone he knew was a child," Castaldo said.

Prosecutors have said Harrell had no relationship with any other defendants in the case and is the only defendant who knew the girl before her disappearance.

Assistant District Attorney Zachary Kelly, who is trying the case with Castaldo, told the judge Thursday prosecutors would present as evidence DNA from a mattress found in the abandoned house, male and female underwear rolled up and stuffed inside that mattress, extensive text message conversations between the two and a videotaped confession by Harrell to the sexual acts.

“The case is incredibly strong," Kelly said.

Defense attorney Jeremy Scileppi, of Commack, told Wilutis he would continue to seek alternative offers from the district attorney’s office while awaiting the start of pretrial hearings.

While presiding judges also have the ability to offer plea deals in a criminal case, Wilutis said the 15-years-to-life proposal from prosecutors reflects the minimum sentence under the law for first-degree kidnapping. Scileppi politely reminded the judge that prosecutors have the ability to withdraw the kidnapping charge and offer a plea to a lesser offense.

“That is a plea bargain with the people, not with the court," said Wilutis, who would have to approve any plea bargain.

Instead, Harrell’s plea rejection brings the case another step closer to a trial, which attorneys have said would likely take place early next year. It also comes as several co-defendants named in the indictment — which once encompassed 11 men and women charged with a range of crimes that also include drug and trafficking offenses — have admitted their guilt.

One day earlier, Wilutis accepted a plea and sentenced a Bay Shore man who admitted selling drugs to the teen on board the dilapidated yacht where she spent most of the days after she left the house where she stayed with Harrell. Another co-defendant pleaded guilty last month to trafficking the girl, and another died in jail awaiting trial.

Seven defendants still face the possibility of going to trial in the case.

Wilutis scheduled pretrial hearings for Nov. 17 regarding the admissibility of evidence obtained from search warrants and statements Harrell allegedly made to police.

By Grant Parpan

grant.parpan@newsday.com@GrantParpan

Grant Parpan covers Suffolk County courts and federal courts for Newsday. A Long Island native, he joined Newsday in 2022.