AUBURN - A Geneva man was sentenced Thursday in Cayuga County Court to seven years in state prison for illegally possessing a loaded .45-caliber semiautomatic handgun, pointing the gun at an Auburn police officer and resisting arrest during a police chase.

Jason Abron, 31, was found guilty in June of felony criminal possession of a weapon and misdemeanor charges of resisting arrest and second-degree menacing. He was acquitted of two other felony charges.

Abron was convicted in 1996 in Orleans County of third-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance; in 1996 in Genesee County of third-degree criminal sale of marijuana; and in 1998 in Orleans County of third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance.

"Mr. Abron, you obviously have some assets in your background: your personality, your family. But you chose to disregard these assets," Judge Peter Corning said.

Corning denied the district attorney office's application to have Abron considered a persistent felony offender and be sentenced to 15 years to life, or a maximum of 25 years to life.

Following a road rage incident at Wall and Washington streets Oct. 24, Abron left his vehicle on West Street after trying to evade police in his car. Abron pointed the loaded gun at a city police officer before tossing the weapon away during a foot chase, police said. Abron then tried to elude police by swimming across the Owasco Outlet.

Also in court:

- Kevin Lasher, 47, of 2601 Earl St., Weedsport, was sentenced to six months in Cayuga County Jail, six months of homebound detention and nine years probation for a felony charge of third-degree rape and a misdemeanor charge of first-degree unlawfully dealing with a child.

Lasher supplied alcohol to a 16-year-old and a 15-year-old and then had sex with the 16-year-old Feb. 21.

Lasher did not give a statement, but his mother, Martha Shippey, said in her statement her son suffered from guilt, shame and embarrassment from his crime, and a jail sentence would only ruin the good counseling had done for him.

Corning said he was not impressed that Lasher inferred the 16-year-old girl had teased him, and said that teenagers are not legally deemed to have the maturity to make an appropriate decision about sexual intercourse.

Both girls were granted orders of protection.

- Harold Leiger, 37, of Johnson City, near Binghamton, pleaded guilty to a felony charge of third-degree rape. Leiger admitted he had sexual intercourse with an 11-year-old girl within city limits in July 2003.

His sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 9.

- Thomas Verso, 55, of Syracuse and formerly of Union Springs, had his sex offender level set at level two, a moderate risk of reoffending.

Verso was convicted of the Aug. 1, 2000, rape of a 13-year-old girl. He was released from a 2 1/3 to seven year sentence in June.

The sex offender hearing was delayed from completion in June because Verso contested some elements of the crime, including that he used a gun to threaten the victim.

Because the victim's statement in 2000 did not say Verso used a loaded gun to threaten her - and only a 2005 statement did - Corning said the points Verso's crime warranted on the sex offender scale put him at level two.

Staff writer Amaris Elliott-Engel can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 282 or at amaris.elliot-engel@lee.net