James
GOSHEN – A Newburgh man was sentenced in Orange County Court on Monday to 25 years in state prison as a second felony offender.
Kenyatta James, 39, also known as Nate Bender, was convicted last October by a jury of committing a knifepoint robbery and criminal possession of a weapon. He was convicted of the same charges in 2011, but that was overturned by an appellate court in 2015 due to an improper identification procedure. The court ordered that James be re-tried.
James had previously been sentenced to 17 years in prison. The district
attorney’s office noted his record of misconduct while serving his
prison sentence and recommended that he be sentenced to either 25 years
to life as a persistent felony offender or 25 years in prison as a second
felony offender. Judge Craig Stephen Brown sentenced James to 25 years
as a second felony offender.
It had been alleged that James robbed a woman at knifepoint in the City of Newburgh on July 20, 2010.
