NEWBURGH – A former Newburgh man convicted of murder and other related crimes has had his sentence reduced by the Appellate Division of State Supreme Court.
On August 29, 2018, a jury in Orange County Court Judge William DeProspo’s court also found Omarrio Morrison, 29, guilty of armed robbery, criminal possession of a weapon, and tampering with physical evidence.
He was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison, but on appeal, that was reduced to 20 years to life.
At noon on June 21, 2017 at about noon at 168 Chambers Street in Newburgh, Morrison was observed on street surveillance camera summoning two young men, Dejiore Fox, 21, and Tyrees Canigan, 16, to the front stoop of his apartment building. He gave both men a gun and told them to go to a basement apartment and rob occupant. During the commission of the crime, the victim lunged at the robbers and Fox fired the gun, killing the man.
Both men cooperated with the prosecution.
The appellate court ruled in a January 26, 2022 decision that the sentences imposed on Morrison for tampering with physical evidence – tossing the two guns in a wood debris pile – should not have been imposed to run consecutively with the murder sentence.
