Life in prison for killing Wantagh student
Devon Callicutt, 20, was convicted of first-degree murder in the October 2008 shooting death of Richard Bailey. Credit: Albany Police Department
The man convicted of murdering a University of Albany student from Wantagh, as he walked to his off-campus apartment in October 2008, was sentenced Thursday to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Devon Callicutt, 20, of Albany, was convicted Dec. 14 for the attempted robbery and shooting death of Richard Bailey, 22, of Wantagh. The first-degree murder conviction sentence was imposed by Acting State Supreme Court Justice Dan Lamont in Albany.
Heather Orth, a spokeswoman for Albany District Attorney P. David Soares said prosecutors "asked for the maximum possible sentence, which he received."
Bailey, who was considering following his father's footsteps into a law enforcement career, was shot hours after he had returned to Albany from a trip home to Long Island.
Prosecutors said Bailey was walking home about 11:20 p.m. on Oct. 20, 2008, when Callicutt and two other men accosted him and demanded money.
Callicutt shot Bailey in the head, prosecutors said, and he died the next day at an Albany hospital.
During his trip home, Bailey, the son of retired New York City policeman James Bailey, had taken the city police department examination.
About a half-hour after the shooting, Callicutt robbed someone else after threatening that person with a handgun, prosecutors said.
After a weeklong trial on both incidents, Callicutt was convicted by a jury of murder, attempted robbery, criminal possession of a weapon, and robbery.
Two other men charged in the Bailey crime, Ricardo Caldwell, 19, of Schenectady, and King Jamell Modest, 18, of Albany, pleaded guilty earlier this year to attempted robbery. They cooperated with prosecutors. Modest and Caldwell were sentenced to prison for 10 and 12 years, respectively.
