Middletown resident Anthony Parrish, 56, was sentenced to 40 years in prison followed by five years of post-release supervision on Tuesday, Nov. 10, in Orange County Court by Judge Craig Stephen Brown, according to Orange County District Attorney David Hoovler.
The sentencing followed a June 2024 shooting in the Town of Crawford. It comes two months after a jury convicted Parrish of all charges against him, including second-degree attempted murder and first-degree assault, as reported by Daily Voice at the time.
According to prosecutors, Parrish went to the victim's Crawford home around 8 a.m. on June 6, 2024, and shot him twice in the head before fleeing. Despite his serious injuries, the victim managed to crawl out of his home and make his way to a main road, where he flagged down a passerby who called 911.
A coincidence then helped investigators identify the shooter: the first Crawford Police sergeant to arrive had visited the victim's property on an unrelated matter the day before the shooting. During that earlier visit, Parrish had also been at the property riding a motorbike.
Although badly wounded, the victim was able to tell the sergeant that the person who shot him was the same man who had been on the motorbike.
The sergeant reviewed footage from his body-worn camera, found the motorbike's license plate, and used it to identify Parrish, prosecutors said. Police then issued an alert for him, and he was eventually found by a Middletown Police officer at a bus stop in the city.
After detaining Parrish, investigators found him with a duffel bag containing a loaded handgun and quantities of narcotics. The gun was later confirmed to be the weapon used in the shooting, and Parrish's DNA was found on both the firearm and drug packaging, according to prosecutors.
Following a jury trial in September, Parrish was convicted of second-degree attempted murder, first-degree assault, second- and third-degree criminal possession of a weapon, third- and fourth-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, and two counts of fifth-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance.
At Tuesday's sentencing, the victim spoke in court about the ordeal he survived, according to Hoovler.
"The maximum sentence imposed is the only appropriate sentence for the unspeakable violence perpetrated by this defendant," Hoovler said.
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