POUGHKEEPSIE – Forty-seven-year-old Miguel Lora of Poughkeepsie entered guilty pleas to a series of armed violent felonies on Tuesday before Dutchess County Court Judge Edward McLoughlin. Lora was scheduled to go to trial on the charges on October 10.
Lora had been on parole since 2018 on a charge of criminal possession of a weapon when he was arrested in March during a traffic stop in the City of Poughkeepsie and found in possession of two illegal semi-automatic handguns. The traffic stop occurred just minutes before officers executed a search warrant at his Center Street residence where they seized an assault-style weapon and a large sum of drugs. (The account of that arrest can be found here.)
For the March arrest, Lora pled guilty on Tuesday to criminal possession of a weapon and admitted that he had violated the terms and conditions of his 2018 sentence for the weapons charge.
Not long after his March arrest, he indicted on two felony counts of robbery and one count of burglary on April 12, 2023. He was arrested by the Dutchess County Sheriff’s Office following an investigation into a July 2022 home invasion in Pleasant Valley. For his role in the violent home invasion, Lora pled guilty to felony burglary before Judge McLoughlin.
Sentencing, according to Dutchess County Senior Assistant District Attorney Scott Johnson, is scheduled for November 20. Pursuant to an agreement between the parties, Lora will serve no more than 17 years in prison followed by five years of post-release supervision. He is also responsible to pay $30,000 in restitution along with the mandatory fees and surcharges.
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