BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Erie County District Attorney's Office announced on Monday that a 22-year-old Buffalo man has pled guilty to charges involving drugs, attempted murder, assault and robbery from four different criminal cases.
Tombe Yanga, who also goes by Tom Yanga, pleaded guilty to the highest charges in the four cases on Friday afternoon in State Supreme Court.
He will be sentenced on April 9, at 10 a.m. and is being held without bail. Yanga faces a maximum of 25 years in prison for his crimes, which include five felonies, three of which are violent felonies, and two misdemeanors.
The Cases
The DA's office says that around 11 p.m. on March 14, 2019, Police spotted Yanga get into a vehicle on Plymouth Street that had been reported stolen and drive away. Police, who had been on a routine patrol, pursued him onto West Avenue, where Yanga got out of the car and ran away. Police apprehended Yanga with the help of other officers. The DA says Yanga had stolen the vehicle at knife point on Arkansas Street the night before.
He was charged with and pled guilty to criminal possession of stolen property in the fourth degree, which is a class E felony in New York.
A few months later, on July 22, 2019, Yanga shot a man in the back, who was the passenger of a vehicle that Yanga shot into, while sitting in a different car on Tonawanda Street. The person he shot survived.
Police responded and found Yanga nearby. Police say they smelled marijuana when approaching the vehicle Yanga was in, and searched the vehicle because of the scent. Police found two illegal pistols underneath the front passenger seat, and the cartridge casings from the scene matched one of the guns. The police linked Yanga to the guns with DNA.
For this incident, Yanga was charged with attempted murder in the second degree, a class B violent felony, assault in the second degree, a class D felony, and criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree, a class C violent felony. He pled guilty on all charges.
Less than a month later, on August 15, 2019, three individuals including Yanga attacked a person who was leaving a corner store at the intersection of Grant and Hampshire Streets. The attackers stole the victim's wallet and bicycle.
Yanga was charged with and pleaded guilty to robbery in the second degree, a class C violent felony, and the two other defendants have cases pending.
On August 15, 2019, the victim was leaving a corner store on Grant and Hampshire Streets in the City of Buffalo when he was attacked by three unknown individuals. During the assault, the victim’s wallet and bicycle were stolen. The defendant was identified as one of the assailants.
Then, a month later on September 19, Yanga was arrested when police executed a search warrant aimed at him, in an apartment on Grant Street. They found a bag with smaller bags of powder cocaine and heroin in the patrol vehicle after he was transported to the police station.
Yanga was charged with two counts of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the seven degree, which are both class A misdemeanors. He pled guilty to both.
