Guilty verdict in Orange County gun possession case

GOSHEN – A Town of Wallkill man faces up to 15 years in state prison when sentenced in July.
James Youngberg, 46, was convicted by a jury of criminal possession of a weapon and other charges in connection with his possession of a loaded firearm that he pointed at another person.
Prosecutors proved that on January 2, 2015, after Youngberg had been drinking for about three hours, a dispute arose between Youngberg and his victim. 
Youngberg approached the other man with a pistol in his outstretched hand. The weapon was a .45 caliber defaced firearm, loaded with one bullet in the chamber and three in the magazine. When Youngberg got close to the other man, the victim grabbed the gun and the two struggled. When police arrived during the struggle, Youngberg ran and hid until he was arrested, leaving the victim holding the gun. He immediately discarded the weapon and surrendered to police. Youngberg’s DNA was later fo0und on the three bullets in the pistol’s magazine.
Wallkill Town and Middletown City Police investigated the case.
“Gun violence destroys communities, especially when people seek to settle disputes at the point of a gun, and especially when people mix alcohol with firearms,” said District Attorney David Hoovler. “We take gun crimes very seriously, and will seek significant sentences for those who raise the stakes on minor disagreements by resorting to the use of a gun.”