Syracuse, NY -- A Syracuse man who has pleaded guilty in both state and federal courts to sexually abusing a 10-year-old girl is facing an obscure legal limbo.
Austin Pratt is supposed to be sentenced to between 20 and 30 years in federal prison for the Valentine’s Day 2018 abuse in Syracuse. As part of the deal, he’d get sentenced in state court for a lengthy prison term that would be served at the same time as his federal sentence.
But an Onondaga County judge on Tuesday acknowledged that he could sentence Pratt under the deal, but that his federal counterpart didn’t have to follow his lead.