Defendant Sentenced to 18 Years for Attempting to Kill Man with Handgun

Orange County District Attorney David M. Hoovler announced that on Tuesday, November 20, 2018, Antoine Johnson, 25, of Newburgh, was sentenced by Orange County Court Judge Craig Stephen Brown to eighteen years in prison, and five years post-release supervision, in connection with the March 4, 2018 shooting of a man outside the 411 Lounge, in the City of Newburgh. Johnson had previously pleaded guilty to Attempted Murder in the Second Degree on July 11, 2018.

At the time that he pled guilty, Johnson admitted that he had illegally possessed a loaded handgun which he fired multiple times at a vehicle being driven by the victim and that bullets from that weapon hit the vehicle, striking the victim in his elbow. Johnson admitted that he was attempting to kill the victim at the time he fired the shots.

District Attorney Hoovler thanked the City of Newburgh Police Department for their investigation of the case and for the defendant’s arrest.

The investigation into the matter was handled pursuant to a protocol developed as part of the Department of Criminal Justice Services’ Non-Fatal Shooting Initiative. Under that grant an Orange County District Attorney’s Office Criminal Investigator is assigned full-time to the City of Newburgh Police Department and works with a City of Newburgh Police Department detective, responding to, and investigating non-fatal shootings.

“This defendant admitted his intent to take another’s life and clearly deserves a lengthy state prison sentence,” 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. I am grateful that the City of Newburgh Police Department has been working so closely with my office, and our other law enforcement partners, to curtail this type of street violence, including by partnering with us on the Gun Involved Violence Elimination (GIVE) Initiative and the Non-Fatal Shooting Initiative. My office will continue to seek lengthy prison sentences for those who resort to violence and weapons to settle disputes.”