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Port Jervis resident Justin White, 30, was sentenced in Orange County Court to 16 years in prison after previously pleading guilty to robbery and rape, the District Attorney’s Office announced.
On Aug. 3, 2018, on Jersey Avenue in Port Jervis, White and Tranelle Drake, 31, of Port Jervis, confronted a 67-year-old man and displayed what appeared to be a pistol. They struck the man in the face with the weapon; stole the man’s wallet, car keys and cellphone; and locked the man in the trunk of his car.
Orange County District Attorney David Hoovler said that the victim was able to escape from the trunk before White and Drake drove away in his car. Several police agencies, including the Port Jervis Police Department, the New York State Police, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, and the Walden Police Department attempted to locate the car.
Sheriff’s deputies stopped the car in Walden, and White and Drake were arrested. An Orange County grand jury indicted White and Drake for crimes including robbery and kidnapping following their arrest.
During the investigation of the robbery and kidnapping, Hoovler said that police learned that White had engaged in sexual contact with a girl who was under the age of 15. White was indicted by an Orange County grand jury and on Sept. 17 last year on the rape charge.
According to Hoovler, White was sentenced to ten years in prison and five years post-release supervision on the robbery charge, and six years in prison and ten years post-release supervision on the rape charge. The judge ordered that both sentences run consecutively, for a total sentence of sixteen years.
Drake previously pleaded guilty to robbery and attempted armed robbery, and he was sentenced to 13 years in prison followed by five years of post-release supervision, Hoovler noted.
“This defendant is obviously a danger to society, irrespective of his victims’ ages,” Hoovler said. “I admire the bravery and tenacity of the victim of this horrific robbery and hope that the survivor of the sex crime receives the help and support that she is entitled to. Our community will be safer during the sixteen years that this defendant is incarcerated.”
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