Kingston, NY—On Wednesday October 30, 2024, Seth Young, age 50, of Esopus, was sentenced following his April 10, 2023 guilty pleas to his entire indictment charging him with the felonies of Grand Larceny in the Third and Fourth Degrees. The guilty pleas occurred after jurors from all parts of the County had assembled jury selection and trial. He is expected to receive a sentence of 6 to 12 years in state prison, after receiving consecutive sentences for all three felony convictions.
The indictment charged the defendant with forcibly breaking into the Headless Horseman Haunted Attractions in Esopus and using a bolt cutter to steal the ATM from the business on December 10, 2021. While that matter was pending the defendant went to Herzog’s in the City of Kingston and stole a snowblower on December 21, 2021. He struck again on Christmas day, December 25, 2021, stealing another snowblower from Herzog’s.
Video surveillance at both businesses captured the defendant committing the charged offenses. He confessed to the Ulster County Sheriff’s Detectives during the Headless Horseman investigation, and to the Kingston Police Detectives for the Herzog’s investigation. Ulster County Sheriff detectives executed a search warrant at his residence and recovered the stolen ATM which he had smashed to pieces.
Defendant has a lengthy criminal history consisting of four separate felony prison sentences, including violent felony convictions for Attempted Burglary in the Second Degree and Assaulting an Officer, along with numerous misdemeanor convictions. He literally referred to himself as a “tall crime scene”; he unmistakably stood out in surveillance videos.
District Attorney Emmanuel C. Nneji noted, “Seth Young has singlehandedly been responsible for a substantial number of commercial and other property thefts and mischief in Kingston, Town of Ulster and surrounding areas. He needed to be stopped since his four prior felony and other convictions and sentences have not caused him to change course.”
The case was prosecuted by Deputy Chief Assistant District Attorney Paul Derohannesian. The defendant was represented by attorney Kevin Richards of Orange County when he pled at the time when jury trial was about to begin. Defendant represented himself at the time of sentencing.
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