 Naythen Aubain
The guard, 33-year-old Matthew Cornell, reported that Aubain was caught carrying the weapon during a search.
Aubain contended that he was innocent and that the weapon had been planted. Nevertheless, on October 26, 2016, he pled guilty to possession of the shank. He was sentenced to two to four years in prison, to be served consecutive to the sentence he was serving for a prior second-degree robbery conviction.
In December 2016, Cayuga County District Attorney Jon Budelman revealed that Cornell had admitted planting a weapon on a different inmate at the Auburn prison. Cornell said that the inmate was a member of a prison gang, and he wanted him transferred to another prison to try to break up the gang.
Because of Cornell’s admission, the inmate involved in that incident was not charged with a crime. However, Budelman then asked a Cayuga County Supreme Court judge to vacate the convictions of Aubain and four other inmates, all of whom had pled guilty even though they claimed at the time that the weapons had been planted. Cornell was the guard who said he found the weapons in all five cases.
On January 19, 2017, Aubain’s conviction was vacated and the charge was dismissed.
– Maurice Possley
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