GOSHEN – Orange County District Attorney David Hoovler and his prosecutors have secured a guilty plea from a Dutchess County carjacker for his role in an Orange County crime spree. Forty-five-year-old Leonard Dolson of Beekman entered a guilty plea in Orange County on Tuesday.
Dolson pleaded guilty to the charges of Robbery and Grand Larceny in connection with the knife-point theft of a car in the City of Newburgh and stealing money from a bank in the Village of Goshen. He will be sentenced to a total of fifteen years in state prison and five years post-release supervision when he is sentenced on May 2, 2022.
According to DA Hoovler, Dolson admitted in court that on March 19, 2021, at about 3:15 PM, he forcibly stole a car from the Save-A-Lot grocery store located at 97 Lake Street, in the City of Newburgh from a woman who was loading groceries into her car. He threatened her with a knife as he demanded her car keys, and forced her to get out of the car. Dolson then drove away and drove towards Goshen. At about 4:50 pm that day, he drove the stolen car to the Rhinebeck Bank branch in the Village of Goshen, where he entered the bank and handed the teller a note demanding money, resulting in obtaining more than $1,200 in cash. Following the theft from the bank, Dolson fled in the stolen car and was apprehended in Rockland County after a car and foot pursuit by the New York State Police.
Dolson has a criminal record and Hoovler said “One does not need to use a gun to be a dangerous criminal and a threat to the community.” He added “This defendant’s crime spree will likely have lasting effects on the victims that he threatened, and the community will be safer during the fifteen years that he is in prison. I commend all the police who aided in his apprehension, particularly the New York State Troopers who bravely pursued him down an embankment to ensure that he could not victimize anyone else.”
