Orange County District Attorney David M. Hoovler announced that on Tuesday, August 27, 2024, James Rich, 36, of Newburgh, was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for killing a man with a broomstick. On June 24, 2024, Rich was convicted after a jury trial in the Orange County Court of all charges against him, including the crimes of Murder in the Second Degree and Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance in the Seventh Degree in connection with the stabbing death of a man in a residence in Newburgh.

As alleged at trial, on 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 residence and attacked a 76 year-old man who lived with Rich in the residence. During the course of the attack, Rich impaled the victim in the head with a metal broomstick which resulted in the man’s death. 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 were believed to have been worn by Rich during the killing. In the early morning hours of 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.

Rich was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison on the charge of Murder in the Second Degree and 364 days on the misdemeanor charge of Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance in the Seventh Degree, for having illegally possessed cocaine. By operation of law the sentences merge.

Hoovler thanked the City of Newburgh Police Department whose investigation led to the arrest of Rich and also thanked 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 District Attorney David M. 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. I offer my condolences to the victim’s family and friends and I hope that this lengthy sentence will give them a sense of closure. The prosecution of violent felonies, most importantly in those cases that result in a death, remains the cornerstone priority of my Office and we will not cease in our pursuit of dangerous offenders.”

Hoovler highly commended Assistant District Attorneys Tanja Beemer and Nicholas Mangold who prosecuted the case.