Moses Greengrass was sentenced yesterday to three years in the Garfield County Community Corrections Center for felony cocaine possession. Greengrass, 27, will now go before a state parole board, which will sentence him for violating his parole from two felony convictions stemming from his role in a series of teenage armed robberies in 1999. That board will most likely sentence him to prison, a term he must serve before his years in community corrections.
Judge James Boyd handed down the sentence at the end of a contentious and emotional hearing, which was attended by Greengrass’s family and girlfriend.
“I’m pretty embarrassed in here and I’m ashamed,” Greengrass said in a contrite statement to the court that was often interrupted by his sobs. “I had an opportunity and I threw it away. ... I just want to do something productive.”
Greengrass served part of a 12-year prison sentence for the 1999 robberies, and was still on parole when arrested outside of Eric’s Bar on Hyman Avenue on March 23 of last year.
Early that morning, rookie Aspen police officer Jeff Fain saw Greengrass lean into a car and perform what he believed was a drug handoff. When Fain began questioning him, Greengrass walked away, then ran. Police caught up with him in an alleyway behind the Caribou Club. They searched a jacket he had taken off during the brief chase, and found almost 40 grams of cocaine in it.
Deputy District Attorney Gail Nichols went against the probation department’s recommendation that Greengrass be sentenced to a community corrections center rather than a traditional lockup. Nichols asked Judge Boyd to give Greengrass three years in prison, pointing out that the Greengrass bust was the largest local cocaine seizure since the 2002 Cooper Street Pier raid.
“This is more than even a group of people could use,” Nichols argued. “This is a lot of cocaine.”
She characterized Greengrass as healthy, smart and from a supportive family, but bent on living a life of crime.
“He adopted an identity that it was cool to use drugs, cool to be in prison, cool to be an ex-con,” she argued, pointing to a gangster rap group he joined while on parole called The Rhyme Crime Family.
Greengrass’s criminal history stretches back to age 14, when he was convicted of possession of marijuana, continuing steadily through the 1999 armed robbery convictions and last year’s drug arrest.
McCarty painted a picture of Greengrass’s frustrating childhood in Aspen, as the poor kid in a rich town, and noted he had now been incarcerated for nearly his entire adult life.
“If he is to become a productive member of our society,” McCarty argued, “the last thing he needs is more prison time.”
McCarty reiterated his argument that the police stop of Greengrass outside of Eric’s Bar was unlawful and violated Greengrass’s right to privacy. (In September, District Judge James Boyd denied McCarty’s motion to suppress the cocaine and jacket as evidence.)
Greengrass had since become a mentor to other men at the Pitkin County Jail, said McCarty, and he spearheaded a fundraising effort for the impoverished of Haiti.
Judge Boyd acknowledged Greengrass’s progress, potential and his strong family support, while noting the large amount of drugs Greengrass possessed and his “baggage” of two prior felony convictions.
“Those strengths are a part of you,” Judge Boyd said before handing down the sentence. “The criminal behavior is a part of you, as well.”
andrew@aspendailynews.com