Queens drug kingpin Lorenzo ‘Fats Cat’ Nichols will get early launch from federal jail

Queens drug kingpin Lorenzo “Fats Cat” Nichols might be sprung from federal jail three years early, after a choose dominated he has “in impact” served his 40-year jail sentence.

Nichols, 64, nonetheless isn’t a free man, although — he has a 10-year jail sentence looming in Florida.

He pleaded responsible in 1992 to arranging the homicide of parole officer Brian Rooney and killing two others, together with his ex-girlfriend, receiving a 25-to-life state sentence and a concurrent 40-year federal sentence.

He additionally was linked, however by no means charged, to the slaying of NYPD Officer Eddie Byrne, 22, who was executed whereas sitting in his patrol automobile in South Jamaica, Queens, in February 1988.

Brooklyn Federal Courtroom Decide Edward Korman made no particular remarks in his Friday ruling about Nichols’ well being or whether or not he thought the murderous kingpin was a reformed man.

As an alternative, his ruling centered on how Nichols didn’t get credit score for the 4 years he spent in state jail earlier than Korman sentenced him in 1992.

“If I have been sentencing in the present day, I may have overcome the style wherein the [Bureau of Prisons] calculates his launch date by sentencing him to 36 years, as an alternative of 40 years (which is the sentence I understood he would serve),” Korman wrote. “However, for the discount of his sentence that he now seeks, the First Step Act provides me the discretion to perform the identical end result.”

That felony justice reform invoice obtained bipartisan assist in Congress and was signed into regulation by then-President Donald Trump in 2018.

Nichols, who spent 34 years in state and federal jail, caught a break in 2022 when the state Parole Board agreed to his launch — over the repeated opposition of the Queens district lawyer’s workplace and the police union. However he nonetheless owed time to the feds.

In an Aug. 15 letter to Korman, Nichols complained about his therapy at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Heart, saying he’d “developed migraines after receiving information of being incarcerated for 4 extra years attributable to miscalculations and a failure to tell of a probation violation wherein I used to be by no means charged, sentenced, nor knew existed.”

Nichols’ lawyer Richard Levitt described him as rehabilitated in a submitting to Korman final month and referred to as him a “motivating drive” who wished to try to restore the injury he’s brought about. Within the submitting, he quoted a December 2021 letter from Nichols to the state Parole Board.

“The previous 36 years has given me loads of time to mirror and be trustworthy with myself that promoting medicine was no quick lower to success,” he wrote.

“There may be nothing sensible, or superb about being a drug supplier. I now notice how younger and ignorant I used to be; I take full accountability for my actions that left a path of destruction and tore many households aside.”

Levitt referred to as Korman’s determination Friday a “good end result,” including that Nichols is trying ahead to his eventual launch.

“It was clear that it was [Korman’s] expectation when he initially sentenced Lorenzo that he would obtain credit score” for time served, the lawyer mentioned. “On the time, he wasn’t in a position to do something about that, however now he’s.”

“So far as we’re involved, this chapter of his life’s closed,” he added.

Nichols is about to stay held at MDC till his switch to Florida. He was convicted in Martin County in 2007 for his position in a automobile theft and title fraud ring, data present.

Levitt’s submitting means that Nichols might problem that conviction, although.

He pleaded responsible in alternate for 10 years behind bars and probation for his son, who was additionally charged, however unbeknown to him, his son was additionally cooperating with authorities.

The daddy and his son had the identical lawyer, “strongly supporting a declare that Nichols had been denied his proper to conflict-free counsel,” Levitt wrote.

Federal prosecutors objected to Nichols’ launch, however his migraines and different unspecified well being points.

“Nichols was the kingpin of a violent narcotics enterprise and commissioned at the least 4 murders, together with the homicide of the mom [of] an toddler and a parole officer,” Assistant U.S. Lawyer Adam Amir wrote in September. “Nichols’ appalling conduct overwhelmingly weighs in opposition to his launch.”

A spokesman for U.S. Lawyer Breon Peace declined remark Monday.

“Not even a millisecond ought to have been shaved off this murderous drug lord’s sentence,” Police Benevolent Affiliation President Patrick Lynch fumed Monday. “Our hero brother P.O. Eddie Byrne and Parole Officer Brian Rooney will not be coming dwelling any time quickly. This cop-killer should not be despatched dwelling, ever.”

Within the Nineteen Eighties, Nichols lorded over the drug commerce in Queens, and police and federal authorities lengthy believed he green-lit NYPD Officer Byrne’s killing in his patrol automobile — although he was by no means charged within the slaying.

Nichols advised the Parole Board in February that he took “full duty” for Rooney’s homicide, saying that he solely wished the parole officer roughed up in order that he’d miss an important listening to. Rooney’s companion on the time mentioned he was focused for execution as a result of he “disrespected” the drug lord by taking him into custody on a parole violation.

“My emotions are that he ought to keep in custody for so long as the regulation permits. But when he did serve these three years pending trial, beneath the regulation that truly counts towards his sentence, and I perceive that,” Rooney’s companion, Alan Reiter, advised the Each day Information on Monday.

“He brought about loads of injury, and it’s unhappy that he’s not going to spend his life in jail. However regardless of the regulation permits, that’s what he ought to get,” he added.

“Brian bought a life sentence of dying. … Nothing will deliver him again. It’s nonetheless very painful after I give it some thought.”