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Orange County District Attorney David M. Hoovler announced on Tuesday, Aug. 27, that Orange County resident James Rich, age 36, of Newburgh, was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for killing a man with a broomstick.
Rich was convicted in June by a jury of all charges, including murder and criminal possession of a weapon.
As alleged at trial, on Tuesday, March 14, 2023, police responded to a call for assistance at a residence in the city of Newburgh. As a result of that call, Rich was arrested and charged with possessing cocaine.
After being released from that arrest, Rich returned to the home and attacked a 76-year-old man who lived with him.
During the attack, Rich impaled the victim in the head with a metal broomstick, which resulted in the man’s death, court documents show.
Over the next 24 hours, Rich was seen on surveillance video that was later recovered discarding bags of bloody clothing bearing the victim’s DNA that was believed to have been worn by Rich during the killing.
In the early morning hours of Friday, March 17, 2023, Rich was found by police hiding in a closet of a different apartment, and the victim’s cell phone was recovered from the area where Rich was hiding.
Hoovler thanked the City of Newburgh Police Department, whose investigation led to Rich's arrest, and the New York State Police, who assisted in the investigation.
“The community will be safer during the decades that this defendant is in prison,” said Hoovler. “The sheer brutality of this crime is staggering.
The case was challenging from investigation through trial, and the hard-won conviction is a testament to the dedicated work of the police and prosecutors who saw that justice was done."
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