Orange County News

For Immediate Release           Contact: Christopher Borek
   September 7, 2018               845.291.3276, 845.238.4245c

Defendant Sentenced to 12 Years in State Prison for Fatally Stabbing Man 

Orange County District Attorney David M. Hoovler announced that on Friday, September 7, 2018, Christopher Smith, 44, of the Town of Newburgh, was sentenced by Orange County Court Judge William DeProspo to twelve years in prison, and five years post-release supervision, in connection with the April 2017 fatal stabbing of a man who had been staying in Smith’s home. On June 25, 2018, Smith pleaded guilty to Manslaughter in the First Degree. Prosecutors had recommended that Smith be sentenced to twenty years in state prison.

At the time that he pled guilty, Smith admitted that, while he was in his home in the Town of Newburgh in April 2017, he stabbed the man in the neck with a knife. Smith admitted that he had intended to cause serious physical injury to the man, and that the man died as a result of the knife wounds. The New York State Police had received a report from the deceased man’s family on June 30, 2017, that he was missing. As a result of an investigation into the man’s disappearance, on October 24, 2017, members of the State Police discovered the man’s remains buried in a large planter outside of Smith’s residence.

District Attorney Hoovler thanked the New York State Police for their investigation of the case and for the defendant’s arrest.

“No sentence can ever mitigate the pain that a homicide victim’s family experiences when they lose a loved one to violence,” said District Attorney Hoovler. “The unlawful taking of another human life is among the worst crimes that one can commit, and the likelihood of killing increases dramatically when a person chooses to use a weapon. My office will seek lengthy prison sentences for those who resort to violence and weapons to settle disputes. I only hope that the recovery of the victim’s body in this case brought some measure of closure to the victim’s family.”

This case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys Steven Goldberg and Eliza Filipowski.