GOSHEN – The two men accused of the murder of 21-year-old Chelsea Debidin of Walden in September as she visited her boyfriend at his New Windsor home in the Knox Village apartments, were arraigned before Orange County Court Judge Robert Freehill on Friday.
Cornelius Stubbs, 48, and Carlos Rivera, 47, both of Newburgh, were indicted on two counts of murder, attempted murder, burglary, two counts of assault, and criminal possession of a weapon.
The men broke into the brother’s apartment, shooting the brother and fatally shooting his girlfriend. The brother sustained a gunshot wound to his arm.
Debidin’s boyfriend is the brother of the mother of one of Stubbs’ children.
Stubbs is also charged with four counts of criminal contempt in the first degree, six counts of criminal contempt in the second degree, and three counts of harassment, for having repeatedly threatening and harassing the mother of his child, as well as her brother.
Stubbs is also charged with two counts of attempted murder for the October 2011 attempted slaying of another woman with whom Stubbs has a child in common. That victim had been shot several times in her City of Newburgh home.
Stubbs and Rivera face a potential sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole on the charge of first-degree murder.
They are both being held without bail in the Orange County Jail.
“The tragic death of this young woman is one more example of how violence against former domestic and intimate partners effects more than the immediate parties,” said District Attorney David Hoovler. “The violence that abusers use to exert power and control over present and former intimate partners places not only those partners at risk, but their families and indeed the entire community.”
He said ending that type of “senseless violence is everyone’s responsibility. I urge anyone who is a victim of this type of abuse, or who knows of this type of abuse is taking place, to contact law enforcement before another tragedy occurs.”
