Schenectady residents Clifford Charles and Leffon Adams were both found guilty of Murder and Attempted Robbery today after a two-and-a-half-week jury trial in Schenectady County Court. Charles was convicted of two counts of Murder in the Second Degree, four counts of Attempted Robbery in the First Degree and two counts of Criminal Possession of a Weapon for his role in the murder of another Schenectady man, Roscoe Foster, in the early morning of January 25, 2019.
Foster, a local man and father of four, had been employed as a cook at Armando’s restaurant and was a small-scale marijuana dealer. On the night of January 24, 2019 Charles repeatedly called and texted Foster under the guise of buying marijuana, but in reality, planned to rob him. Just after 1 a.m., Foster picked Charles up at the corner of Becker and Elder street. A struggle quickly broke out and a neighboring surveillance camera captured Charles firing two shots, killing Foster, before fleeing. Charles was convicted of one count of Murder for intentionally killing Roster and one count of Murder for killing Foster during the commission of the attempted robbery.
Adams was convicted of one count of Murder in the Second Degree, four counts of Attempted Robbery in the First Degree and two counts of Criminal Possession of a Weapon. The proof at trial showed that Adams was with Charles while the robbery was being planned and then provided Charles with a loaded revolver moments before Charles left to seek out Foster.
The killing of Foster was extensively investigated by members of the Schenectady Police Department and Schenectady County District Attorney’s Office during the three years between the date of the killing and Charles' arrest in August of 2022 and Adams' arrest in December of that same year.
Schenectady County District Attorney Robert M. Carney stated, “Since Roscoe Foster was murdered in 2019, investigators and prosecutors have worked steadily to build cases against these two defendants who early on were identified as suspects. Investigative methods included multiple interviews, phone and GPS analysis, and court-ordered wiretap surveillance. All of this came together today with this jury verdict convicting both defendants of every charge: Clifford Charles for shooting Mr. Foster to death and Leffon Adams for giving his younger cousin Charles the idea to rob Mr. Foster and the gun with which he killed him.
I thank Schenectady Police Detective Kevin Derkowski for his outstanding work in coordinating the police investigation. The case was expertly tried by my Counsel Peter Willis, aided by Assistant District Attorney Eric Gorman. I would also like to particularly commend D.A. Investigator John Madden, who within hours after hearing Clifford Charles alibi testimony for the first time anyone had, was able to locate a witness to refute that testimony, together with her work records, and Lyft and Uber records, all from five years earlier, which we were able to put in evidence the next day. Lastly, I would like to thank the family and loved ones of Roscoe Foster who came to court throughout the trial and were unfailingly supportive of our efforts to hold these men accountable.”
The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys Peter Willis and Eric Gorman. Charles was represented by defense attorney Mark Sacco and Adams was represented by defense attorney Lee Kindlon. The trial was presided over by Schenectady County Court Judge Mark Caruso.