A City of Newburgh man was convicted of possessing an illegal semiautomatic pistol following a jury trial in Orange County Court, Orange County District Attorney David M. Hoovler announced this evening. The conviction came after quick thinking by alert officers led to the criminal’s arrest.
Corey Owens, age 28, now faces up to 15 years behind bars for multiple felony convictions.
On March 1, 2022 at 3:29pm, the City of Newburgh Police Department received a report of a man waving a handgun at citizens in the vicinity of Van Ness Street. An officer monitoring street cameras observed a man discard his jacket in the area of Van Ness and Carpenter Streets as police vehicles began approaching.
Officers Ambrosetti, Herrera, and Luna were the first to arrive on the scene. The quick-thinking officers searched the abandoned jacket and found it to contain a 9mm semiautomatic pistol that was loaded with ten bullets.
Officers then stopped the man who had discarded the jacket and identified him as Owens. During the trial, prosecutors argued that DNA evidence taken from the gun corroborated that Owens possessed the weapon.
According to Hoovler, Owens had prior convictions for felony weapons possession, felony assault with the use of a weapon, and felony conviction for animal fighting. As a result of his escalating pattern of criminal behavior, he faces up to 15 years in prison when he is sentenced on his most recent charges on September 6, 2022.
Owens was convicted of Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the 2nd degree, a Class B felony. He has been remanded to Orange County Jail without bail pending sentencing.
Hoovler thanked the City of Newburgh Police Department for their investigation and subsequent arrest of the criminal. “This defendant’s prior criminal history, as well as his illegal possession of a loaded firearm, demonstrates that he is danger to the community and deserves a very lengthy state prison sentence,” Hoovler declared. “My office will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to severely punish convicted felons who continue to illegally carry guns on our city streets.”
