Orange County News

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February 21, 20198                                                                            845.291.3276, 845.238.4245c

District Attorney Hoovler Announces Prison Sentence in Murder Case

Newburgh Man Sentenced to 21 Years to Life in Prison in Stabbing Death 

of Temporary Emergency Housing Employee

Orange County District Attorney David M. Hoovler announced that on Thursday, February 21, 2019, Wilfredo Mercado, 53, of Newburgh, was sentenced by Orange County Court Judge Craig Stephen Brown to twenty-one years to life in state prison in connection with the May 2017, stabbing death of man inside a temporary emergency housing facility in the City of Newburgh.

On September 28, 2018, Mercado has pleaded guilty to Murder in the Second Degree. At the time that he pleaded guilty, Mercado admitted that at approximately 11:15 pm, on May 23, 2017, he killed an employee inside the temporary emergency housing facility located at 44 Grand Street, where Mercado resided, by repeatedly stabbing him in the torso. Prosecutors had argued that in addition to stabbing the victim, Mercado had repeatedly bludgeoned him and strangled the victim with his own belt.

District Attorney Hoovler thanked the City of Newburgh Police Department for their investigation and the arrest of Mercado, as well as the New York State Police Major Crimes Unit who assisted in the investigation.

The case was prosecuted by Senior Assistant District Attorney Jason Rosenwasser. 

“This defendant clearly deserves the more than two-decade long state prison sentence he will serve for this particularly violent murder of a man who worked to help those who required assistance,” said District Attorney Hoovler. “Those who kill by committing senseless violent acts deserve lengthy prison sentences, whether or not they used a firearm. The community will be far safer while this defendant remains incarcerated and I hope that twenty-one years from now the New York State Parole Board pays due consideration to his violent history and the sheer brutality of this crime before they consider releasing him.”