Samuel Saeli

A New York appeals court has dismissed a 16-year state prison sentence and ordered a new trial for a Dunkirk man accused in 2016 of luring a young boy with disabilities from a store.

In a three-page ruling Friday, the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court, Fourth Department, reversed two convictions against Samuel Saeli — second-degree kidnapping and second-degree kidnapping as a sexually motivated felony.

Saeli was sentenced to state prison by then-acting Chautauqua County Court Judge Paul Wojtaszek in September 2018. The Dunkirk man had been convicted on the kidnapping charges three months prior.

The convictions occurred during Saeli’s second trial, which lasted four days; the first trial ended in a hung jury.

Saeli was accused of kidnapping a 13-year-old boy from the Fredonia Walmart parking lot in August 2016. The victim reportedly entered Saeli’s vehicle and left the parking lot, but was reunited with his family about 40 minutes later near Cushing Street in Fredonia.

In their ruling, the justices said Chautauqua County Court erred in denying Saeli’s motion during the trial when he sought to suppress evidence obtained from a search warrant. The evidence, a portion of his internet searches, was discovered when police used a warrant to go through his cell phone.

In his appeal, Saeli said the search warrant lacked “particularity” in that it wasn’t specific to the internet search history.

The appeals court agreed.

“Here, the search warrant simply stated that the police were directed to search defendant’s cellular phone for ‘digital and/or electronic evidence from August 13, 2016, to August 15, 2016. The warrant … contained no language incorporating any other documents or facts. Significantly, the search of the phone was not restricted by reference to any particular crime. Thus, the search warrant failed to meet the particularity requirement and left discretion of the search to the executing officers.”

The justices state that the court should have suppressed the evidence. “Consequently, we reverse the judgment of conviction and a new trial is granted on both counts,” the ruling states.