District Attorney Hoovler Announces Guilty Plea

in Middletown Stabbing Case

Twenty-Year-Old Woman Pleads Guilty to Manslaughter 

for Stabbing Seventeen-Year-Old Man Outside of the Her House

Orange County District Attorney David M. Hoovler announced that on Monday, November 16, 2020, Chelsea Johnson, 20, of Middletown, pled guilty before Orange County Court Judge William L. DeProspo to Manslaughter in the First Degree, in connection with the fatal stabbing of a seventeen-year-old man outside of Johnson’s Middletown residence. Johnson faces up to eighteen years in prison, plus three years of post-release supervision, when she is sentenced on January 25, 2021.

On January 21, 2020, the victim accompanied Johnson’s former boyfriend to her residence on Orchard Street in Middletown, where they had gone to retrieve some of the former boyfriend’s belongings. Johnson got involved in an argument with the victim and with Johnson’s former boyfriend. During the argument, Johnson stabbed the unarmed victim with a kitchen knife that she had placed in her pocket when she left the house to confront her former boyfriend and the victim. The victim died in the vicinity of the incident, of a single stab wound to the neck.

District Attorney Hoovler thanked the City of Middletown Police Department for their investigation and for the arrest of Johnson, as well as the New York State Police, who aided in the investigation. 

“Senseless violence cannot be tolerated,” said District Attorney David M. Hoovler, “and violence is even more unacceptable when it results in the death of a young person. I hope that as a result of the plea that we announce today, the family, loved ones, and friends of the victim will obtain some measure of closure for their loss, and that the defendant will receive the punishment that she deserves for this killing.”

District Attorney Hoovler commended Senior Assistant District Attorney David Byrne for his prosecution of the case. 

This criminal charge is merely an allegation that a defendant has committed a violation of the criminal law, and it is not evidence of guilt. All defendants are presumed innocent and entitled to a fair trial, during which it will be the State of New York’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

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