KINGSTON – A 26-year-old man from the Orange County section of Pine Bush pled guilty in Ulster County Court on Friday to a murder charge in the killing of a 29-year-old man.
The conviction of Walter Post, Jr. stems from an incident on Tuesday, January 11 when Post stalked his ex-girlfriend at her home.
Michael Hankins, the deceased, an acquaintance, was visiting Post’s former girlfriend’s home at the time. Post believed Hankins was the new man in his former girlfriend’s life and disabled his car.
Hankins left shortly after 1 a.m. but stopped a short distance away on Vinegar Hill Road in the Town of Shawangunk area of Pine Bush when Post shot him with a shotgun several times at close range outside his vehicle.
Due to a lack of traffic in the area, Hankins was not found for several hours and was located on the side of the road across from his car.
Post returned to his ex-girlfriend’s home and told her what he had done. Later that morning, Post told his mother and others that he had killed someone, prompting 911 calls.
Seeing police activity later that morning around his home in the Orange County area of Pine Bush, Post surrendered without incident and was taken into custody by the State Police, Crawford Town and Ellenville Village Police.
Pretrial hearings were set to begin on Friday but Post entered his guilty plea and waived his rights to those hearings, a jury trial, and his rights to appeal.
He is scheduled to be sentenced in September.
