GOSHEN – 31-year-old Seth Pelsang pleaded guilty to Manslaughter on Friday for his involvement in the December 18, 2019 beating death of a man who was found on the side of the road in the Town of Chester. Orange County DA David Hoovler said that three other individuals, Robert Haskell, 55, Timothy Smith, 37, both of Goshen, and Courtney Clemenza, 32, of Chester, were also previously charged in connection with the man’s death.
Haskell, Smith, and Pelsang had been charged with crimes including Murder in the Second Degree and Kidnapping in the Second Degree. Haskell was also charged with Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Third Degree. Clemenza was charged with crimes including Manslaughter in the Second Degree, Kidnapping in the Second Degree, and Endangering the Welfare of a Child.
During prior court appearances prosecutors argued that on December 18, 2019, the deceased man went to the house where Haskell, Pelsang, and Smith lived, armed with a shotgun. After the man was disarmed by the residents and restrained, Haskell then beat him with a baseball bat. Prosecutors argued that all the defendants helped tie-up the injured man. The man was placed inside Clemenza’s car and that he was driven to another area in the Village of Chester where he was left on the side of the road, bound and wounded. After about twenty minutes a motorist noticed the motionless, bound man. He was transported to the hospital and pronounced dead.
At the time Pelsang pleaded guilty, he admitted that on December 18, 2019, he participated, along with others, in tying-up the man, beating him with a baseball bat, transporting him in a car, and leaving him in the road, bound and helpless. Pelsang also stated that he did not notify 911, or anyone else, that the injured man was tied-up on the roadway.
Pelsang is next scheduled to appear in court on December 17, 2020. Clemenza, Haskell, and Smith are next scheduled to appear in court on October 1, 2020.
District Attorney Hoovler thanked the New York State Police for their investigation and the arrest of the defendants, as well as the Village of Chester Police who aided in the investigation.
“Individuals cannot be allowed to take the law into their own hands or settle disputes with violence,” said District Attorney David M. Hoovler. “This man suffered a violent death that was as foreseeable as it was preventable.”
