Ossining Man Pleads Guilty In Hate Crime Stabbing

Ossining resident Robert McCallion, who stabbed a Black woman in 2020 and then attacked a medical professional at Westchester County Jail, has pleaded guilty to 14 felony charges, including attempted murder as a hate crime, Westchester County District Attorney Miriam E. Rocah announced Tuesday.

McCallion, 36, faces a sentence of eight to 25 years in state prison.

On March 13, 2020, McCallion used racial slurs as he repeatedly stabbed a 17-year-old woman at a North Highland Avenue apartment complex in Ossining where he lived. The victim, who was visiting family, was a stranger to him.

Ossining police arrested McCallion after he was found in the parking lot of the Avalon apartment complex with blood on his hands and clothes. The knife McCallion used to stab the victim was also found at the scene, the DA said.

Police located the victim, who was bleeding profusely with stab wounds to the face and back, inside the apartment building with her family, and she was taken to the hospital where she underwent surgery.

"This was a brutal, despicable and cowardly attack by Robert McCallion on an innocent young woman because of the color of her skin,” Rocah said. “Hate crimes such as this not only traumatize the victim, but the community as well, and will be prosecuted aggressively by this Office."

After the attack, News 12 quoted Ossining Police Chief Kevin Sylvester about a cache of weapons, including two loaded assault weapons, found in McCallion's bedroom. "They were laid out as if someone may have intended to use them," Sylvester told the station. Police told News 12 that McCallion was acting strange in the days leading up to the attack and that they were called to the Avalon Apartments several times.

Two days after the stabbing, McCallion attacked a medical professional at the Westchester County Jail in Valhalla, where he was being held, Rocah said.

McCallion pleaded guilty Sept. 9 to attempted murder in the second degree; attempted murder in the second degree as a hate crime; two counts of assault in the first degree; two counts of assault in the first degree as a hate crime; two counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree; four counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree; and two counts of assault in the second degree, all felonies.

The case is before Judge Barry Warhit in Westchester County Court and is being prosecuted by Homicide Bureau Chief Lana Hochheiser and Cold Case Bureau Chief Laura Murphy.

McCallion is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 16.