Had been charged with attack of Cold Spring neighbor
A Cold Spring man accused of attacking a neighbor in her apartment in 2020 pleaded guilty on Oct. 12 to a felony burglary charge, while two assault charges were dismissed.
Tyrell P. Jones, who was 42 when he was charged in November 2020 with three felonies — a burglary that caused injury, strangulation and harming a victim over the age of 65 — had been free on bail. After his plea, he was sent to the Putnam County Jail to await sentencing, which is scheduled for Dec. 7.
As part of an agreement with the Putnam County district attorney, Jones pleaded guilty to a single, reduced burglary charge. Because he has a previous conviction for a violent crime, he faces a sentence of 3.5 years to 7 years in prison. The original burglary charge carried a sentence of 10 to 25 years.
“The investigation that led up to the defendant’s arrest took many months and he was not arrested until we had DNA evidence proving that he was the perpetrator,” said Robert Tendy, the Putnam County district attorney. He said the plea agreement had been approved by the victim and her family. “She told us that she ‘felt 10 years younger’ when the defendant was remanded after his plea.”
Stephen McCarthy Jr., Jones’ attorney, said: “Mr. Jones was fairly treated by both the district attorney’s office and the court. With the loving support of his family, Mr. Jones chose to accept responsibility for the matter and put it behind him.”
Jones was accused of attacking the woman, then 82, in the early morning hours of June 30 in her Rock Street apartment. Prosecutors said that Jones entered her apartment at about 1:30 a.m. and sat on her back “while forcibly covering her mouth with his hands, preventing her from being able to breathe and causing abrasions to her mouth and facial area.”
Jones had earlier been sentenced to four years in prison for a similar assault in Pleasantville. According to a 2012 news account, he was arrested in August of that year and charged with breaking into a home around midnight and attacking a female resident.
He was convicted in that case of strangulation and assault. He had been returned to prison twice on parole violations, according to state records, before being released in May 2020 from the Mid-State Correctional Facility in Oneida County.
