Hudson Valley Man Receives Long Prison Sentence For 2010 Robbery
A Hudson Valley man received a lengthy prison sentence for a 2010 knife-point robbery.
On Monday in Orange County Court, 39-year-old Kenyatta James, aka Nate Bender, from Newburgh was sentenced to 25 years in prison for his conviction of robbery and criminal possession of weapon.
James was previously found guilty of the same charges in 2011 and sentenced to 17 years in prison. The conviction was overturned by an appellate court in May 2015, due to an improper identification procedure.
The appellate court ordered that James be re-tried. He was found guilty during the retrial in March.
At the retrial, prosecutors argued that on July 30, 2010, James robbed a woman at knife-point in the City of Newburgh. When James was arrested, he was found to be in possession of a blade wrapped in tape, officials say.
“This defendant has steadfastly refused to take responsibility for his actions, or even conform to the rules of the correctional facilities where he was being held,” said Orange County District Attorney David Hoovler. “As such, he constitutes a threat to the community. The sentence imposed by the judge was completely appropriate given this crime and this defendant’s history. Any defendant who refuses to comply with correctional facility rules is a grave danger to reoffend. I hope that the additional eight years that have been added on to his sentence will deter others not only from committing violent acts, but from refusing to comply with the lawful commands of corrections officers. If a defendant cannot even behave while incarcerated in state prison, there is little hope of him remaining law-abiding when he is released.”
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