Skip to main content

Woman who gave gun to teen who shot killer facing two years in prison after guilty plea

By Howard B. Owens
urvizu-hanlonjennifer_1.jpg
Jennifer K. Urvizu-  Hanlon

A 48-year-old Batavia woman can expect to spend two years in state prison after admitting today in County Court to attempted criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree.

The charge stems from a May 17 incident on Central Avenue when Jennifer K. Urvizu-Hanlon gave her licensed handgun to Samuel Blackshear, now 18, who shot Nathaniel Wilson, who had just stabbed to death 41-year-old Terry J. Toote.

Wilson is serving a 20-to-life prison term on his murder conviction. Blackshear was sentenced to three years in jail.

Urvizu-Hanlon owned La Mexicana grocery store at the time of her arrest.

According to information that came out at Blackshear's sentencing, surveillance video shows a black sedan on Central Avenue sometime before the incident. At one time, the driver got out and retrieved what looked like a handgun from the truck. The car left Central Avenue and returned. It leaves again and reappears just before Wilson shows up on the street. After Wilson stabbed Toote, Blackshear is seen moving toward Wilson, who is turning to leave. Blackshear sees the sedan and walks over to it and is handed the gun by the driver.

Nobody has seen the gun since the shooting, a point of contention at Blackshear's sentencing. It may have been thrown into a creek. 

As a result of the incident, Urvizu-Hanlon lost her pistol permit and as a result of the conviction, she will not be able to obtain another permit.

The term of the plea agreement is that Urvizu-Hanlon will receive a determinate sentence of two years. The length of her parole, one-and-a-half to three years, will be at the discretion of Judge Charles Zambito when she is sentenced at 1:30 p.m., July 12.

If Urvizu-Hanlon had gone to trial on the charge, she would have faced up to seven years in prison.

First Assistant District Attorney Melissa Cianfrini said the two-year prison term is based on her lack of any prior criminal record.

There will be mitigating information that is discussed at the sentencing that Zambito may consider on the length of her post-release supervision.

Authentically Local