Mercado
GOSHEN – A Newburgh man pled guilty before Orange County Court Judge Craig Stephen Brown on Friday to murder in connection with the May 2017 stabbing death of a man inside a temporary emergency housing shelter in the City of Newburgh.
Wilfredo Mercado, 52, admitted that at about 11:15 p.m. on May 23, 2017, he killed an employee inside the facility at 44 Grand Street where Mercado lived, stabbing Robert Munson, 61 repeatedly in the chest. Munson was an overnight staffer at Youth Advocacy Programs.
Mercado was also said to have repeatedly bludgeoned Munson and strangled him with his own belt.
Mercado faces 21 years to life in prison when sentenced in January.
District Attorney David Hoovler termed the killing “a particularly violent murder of a man who worked to help those who required assistance.”
