GOSHEN – A Newburgh man,
who recruited two other men to rob a man in his Chambers Street, Newburgh
home, was sentenced by Orange County Court Judge William DeProspo on Wednesday
to 27 2/3 years to life in state prison on his murder conviction.
Omarrio Morrison, 26, was convicted of murder, attempted robbery, criminal
possession of a weapon and two counts of tampering with physical evidence
in the death of 63-year-old Raul Diaz-Martinez on June 21, 2017.
During the trial prosecutors argued Morrison had planned a robbery of
Diaz-Martinez while he was in his apartment. Prosecutors also argued that
Morrison recruited Dejoire Fox, 21, and Tyrees Canigan, 17, to commit
the actual robbery and had supplied each with pistols.
Both Fox and Canigan have previously pled guilty to murder. Prosecutors
argued that Fox entered the victim’s apartment to commit the robbery
while being armed with a pistol and shot the victim, who later died of
a gunshot wound. Canigan was the lookout for the robbery.
Morrison was sentenced to 25 years to life on the murder charge and concurrent
sentences of 15 years in state prison and five years of post-release supervision
for the charge of attempted robbery and for each of two counts of criminal
possession of a weapon.
Morrison was sentenced to one-and-one-third to four years in state prison
on each of two counts of tampering with physical evidence, and those sentences
were ordered to run consecutively to each other and the sentence on the
murder charge.
“The sentence reflects the reality that killing a person during
the commission of a felony is just as reprehensible and can be punished
as severely as committing an intentional murder,” said District
Attorney David Hoovler.
