17-year-old Convicted on Gun, Menacing Charges

he Orange County District Attorney is recommending the maximum prison sentence for a 17-year-old Newburgh resident who was convicted Wednesday on weapons and menacing charges.

"One of the tenets of the Gun Initiated Violence Elimination [G.I.V.E.] program is to select for enhanced prosecution efforts those individuals in the City of Newburgh who have shown a propensity for violent behavior. Orange County District Attorney’s Office and the City of Newburgh Police Department had identified Johnson as one such individual," said DA David Hoovier in a prepared statement.

The case involved a confrontation in 2015 in which Ulee Johnson threatened a man with a gun -- but the ammunition was defective.

Here's the DA's entire statement:

Orange County District Attorney David M. Hoovler announced that on Wednesday, May 11, 2016, Ulee Johnson, 17, of the City of Newburgh, was convicted of Attempted Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Second Degree, Criminal Possession of a Firearm, Tampering With Physical Evidence, and Menacing in the Second Degree, following a jury trial before Orange County Court Judge Edward T. McLoughlin. Johnson faces a maximum term of seven years in prison for the charge of Attempted Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Second Degree, and an additional one and one third to four years in state prison on the charge of Tampering with Physical Evidence when he is sentenced on June 8, 2016.

Prosecutors alleged that on October 24, 2015, Johnson threatened a man near City Terrace and First Street, in the City Newburgh, with a revolver which Johnson believed was loaded and which would actually fire, but the ammunition in the gun was defective. When City of Newburgh Police arrived on the scene Johnson ran away and concealed the revolver, which the police later recovered. Johnson was remanded without bail to the Orange County Jail following the jury’s guilty verdicts.

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

One of the tenets of the Gun Initiated Violence Elimination [G.I.V.E.] program is to select for enhanced prosecution efforts those individuals in the City of Newburgh who have shown a propensity for violent behavior. Orange County District Attorney’s Office and the City of Newburgh Police Department had identified Johnson as one such individual. Throughout the prosecution the District Attorney’s Office had only offered a plea to the top provable charge. At the time Johnson is sentenced, the District Attorney’s Office will be recommend that Johnson be sentenced to the maximum prison time authorized under the law.

“The evidence in this case clearly supported the jury’s determination that this defendant possessed a gun believing that it would work with the ammunition in it when he menaced his victim,” said District Attorney Hoovler. “It is extremely fortunate that no one was injured in this incident. My office, along with our partners, including the City of Newburgh Police Department, are fully committed to the GIVE program. We simply cannot tolerate gun related violence on our streets. If an offender has been selected for enhanced prosecution under the GIVE protocols because he has shown a propensity for violence, my office will seek the maximum sentence on all provable crimes, particularly those that involve violence or weapons. I thank and commend the City of Newburgh Police Department for their efforts on this case and the other GIVE cases.”

District Attorney Hoovier highly commended Assistant District Attorney Jason Rosenwasser for his handling of the case.