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Orange County resident Courtney Clemenza, age 33, of Chester, pleaded on Wednesday, March 24, in connection with the December 2019 death of a man beaten and bound on Kipp Road in the Town of Goshen, said Orange County District Attorney David M. Hoovler.
Three other individuals, Robert Haskell, age 55, Timothy Smith, age 37, and Seth Pelsang, age 31, all of Goshen, were also previously charged in connection with the man’s death.
During prior court appearances prosecutors argued that on Wednesday, December 18, 2019, the deceased man went to the house where Haskell, Pelsang, and Smith lived armed with a shotgun.
After the man was disarmed by the residents and restrained, Haskell then beat him with a baseball bat.
Prosecutors argued that all the defendants helped tie-up the injured man.
The man was placed inside Clemenza’s car and then she drove to another area in the Village of Chester where the victim was left on the side of the road, bound and wounded.
After about twenty minutes a motorist noticed the motionless, bound man. He was transported to the hospital and pronounced dead.
At the time Clemenza pleaded guilty, she admitted that she acted in concert with others in tying-up the man who had been beaten with a baseball bat and transporting him in a car and leaving him on the side of the road, bound and helpless, the DA's Office said.
Clemenza faces up to five to 15 years in state prison when she is sentenced.
District Attorney Hoovler thanked the New York State Police for their investigation and the arrest of the defendants, as well as the Village of Chester Police who aided in the investigation.
“Individuals cannot be allowed to take the law into their own hands or settle disputes with violence,” said Hoovler. “This man suffered a violent death that was as foreseeable as it was preventable.”
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