Buffalo teen pleads guilty to insurance fraud, gun possession

Sep. 3—A Buffalo teen pleaded guilty to vandalizing his own car with racist, homophobic and anti-Semitic graffiti and, in a separate case, being in possession of two illegal firearms, the Erie County District Attorney's Office said.

Clifton D. Eutsey, 19, entered his pleas in the two cases Thursday afternoon before Erie County Court Judge Kenneth Case.

Eutsey pleaded guilty to a felony count of third-degree insurance fraud in the graffiti case. On Oct. 15, prosecutors said, he spray-painted his SUV while parked on Saranac Avenue and poured something into his gas tank. He then filed a false claim to his car insurance provider.

In the weapons case, Eutsey was accused of having two loaded, illegal firearms when he was pulled over on Erskine Avenue, near Suffolk Street at about 9 p.m. Oct. 24. Buffalo police had observed him exiting a vehicle that he left unattended outside a home on Erskine and then returned to the vehicle and was stopped.

Eutsey faces a maximum of 15 years in prison when he is sentenced on Oct. 5. He was being held in jail because he failed to appear at a previous court date and was arrested on a bench warrant. He remained remanded without bail pending his sentencing hearing.

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