POUGHKEEPSIE – An inmate at Green Haven Correctional Facility had years added to his sentence Monday morning after pleading guilty to assaulting a corrections officer. Since the attack that rendered the officer unconscious in April 2021, the inmate was transferred to Clinton Correctional Facility.
Dutchess County Assistant District Attorney Lily Gebru said that 52-year-old inmate Edward Samuel has “violent tendencies” and asked Dutchess County Court Judge Edward McLoughlin to classify Samuel as a two-time predicate felony offender. McLoughlin agreed but noted that the inmate, currently serving a 22-year-to-life sentence for robbery has several previous felony convictions.
Gebru told Mid-Hudson News that Samuel has 12 previous felony convictions, including seven violent felonies that occurred between 1987 and 2016. The previous felony convictions cannot be considered for classification purposes, with the exception of the robbery conviction that resulted in his current incarceration. State law allows a “look back” period of only 10 years when determining the felony classification. Other than the robbery, the convictions are from 2002 and earlier.
Gebru told the court that the officer, who was unable to be in court for the sentencing, provided a statement that only requested a sentence of “a year and a day” for his attacker.
Prior to sentencing, McLoughlin praised the correction officer, who he described as being very professional in his statement to the court. “I was uncomfortable with the disposition,” McLoughlin said of the recommended two-to-four-year prison sentence, but the judge agreed based upon the victim’s statement.
Samuel was sentenced to an additional 2-4 years in prison for the attack on the Green Haven officer.
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