District Attorney John Muehl, above, makes his opening remarks to the jury during the opening day of the People Vs. Gabriel Truitt, now underway at the Otsego County Courthouse in Cooperstown. Truitt, seen at right, is charged with arson in the first degree and murder in the first and second degree for his alleged involvement in the fire that claimed the life of John Heller at 5 Walling Ave. in Oneonta on Dec 29, 2018. Check back throughout the day for developments in this case. (Ian Austin/AllOTSEGO.com)
Dylan Robinson, 15, is led into Otsego County Court, Cooperstown for a hearing in October. (Libby Cudmore/AllOTSEGO.com)
COOPERSTOWN – The Otsego County grand jury has indicted Dylan Robinson, 15, Alexander Borgreen, 16, Anais Soto, 15 and Nicolas Meridy, 32, for the murder of Dylan’s father Kenneth Robinson, 53, inside his Worcester home in October, District Attorney John Muehl announced this morning.
The three teens and Meridy were indicted on Murder, second degree, Burglary, first degree and Attempted Robbery, first degree.
Muehl has said they broke into the house with the intent of stealing marijuana and money and, in the course of that robbery, Dylan shot his father in the chest and the head.
Nicolas Meridy, 32, is led out of a felony hearing in the Town of Worcester court, where he was accused of helping orchestra the robbery that led to the murder of Kenneth Robinson at his home in Worcester. (Ian Austin/AllOTSEGO.com)
Stephanie Robinson, Kenneth’s niece, recalled how her uncle would do anything for his kids. “He was an amazing father,” she said.
WORCESTER – Dylan Robinson, 15, the son of Kenneth Robinson, woke up his father and shot him during a struggle for the gun, Senior Investigator Ronald Lussi told Worcester Town Justice William Fisher during a felony hearing for Nicolas Meridy, 32, the Oneonta man accused of helping orchestrate the robbery that lead to Robinson’s death.
“During my interview with Mr. Meridy, he did state that there was a planning session at his house at 37 Fairview Ave, Apt. 2 ½, where they planned to rob Mr. Robinson of money and marijuana,” said Lussi. “They then acquired weapons and drove to the residence.”
When they arrived, Lussi said, Dylan opened the door and let Meridy and the others – including Alex Borgreen, 16 – into the home. Anais Soto, 17, is believed to have been waiting outside.
Dylan Robinson, 15, right, was in Otsego County Court this afternoon on charges that he murdered his father, Kenneth Robinson, 53, during a burglary at his home in Worcester. At left is Alexander Borgreen, 16, also accused in the crime. (Libby Cudmore/AllOTSEGO.com)
Also accused in the murder and burglary, first degree, were Alexander Borgreen, 16, and Anais Soto, 15.
All three are Oneonta High School students.
“The facts established that Robinson, Borgreen and Soto were in the residence at the time of the shooting,” District Attorney John Muehl told County Judge John Lambert. “They all had weapons. It doesn’t matter that some of them didn’t pull the trigger; they’re just as guilty.”
Scott Heggelke, Captain of the Bureau of Criminal Investigators, Troop C, said that Kenneth Robinson was shot multiple times with long guns at his home in Worcester on Thursday. Five people, four of them juveniles, were arrested and charged, four with murder in the second degree and burglary in the first degree and one with burglary, first degree. (Ian Austin/AllOTSEGO.com)
“The first responding troopers saw a man lying just inside his door,” said BCI Capt. Scott Heggelke, Troop C, in a 12:30 press conference at the State Police Oneonta Barracks. “The house was on fire, but the trooper pulled him outside, and it was obvious that he was the apparent victim of multiple gunshot wounds.”
Kenneth Robinson’s body was found inside his home on Head Road in Worcester. The cause of death was a gunshot wound. (Photo provided by State Police Troop C)
By LIBBY CUDMORE • Special To www.AllOTSEGO.com
Nicolas Meridy
ONEONTA – An Oneonta man and three teenagers were charged with murder after they allegedly shot a Worcester man to death in his home last night.
Nicolas Meridy, 32, one 17-year-old and two 15-year-olds, all of Oneonta, were arrested after the body of Kenneth W. Robinson, 53, was found with a fatal gunshot wound inside of his residence on Head Road in Worcester.
Gabrielle Truitt confers with his attorney Lee Kindlon after being denied bail by County Judge Brian D. Burns this morning in Otsego County Court. (Ian Austin/AllOTSEGO.com)
By LIBBY CUDMORE • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com
COOPERSTOWN – Video evidence shows accused arsonist Gabriel Truitt, 33, with the accelerant found in front of Heather Engler’s apartment door in the Walling Avenue fire that killed former Oneonta firefighter John Heller, Assistant District Attorney Will Green said during this morning’s arraignment in Otsego County Court.
“Video evidence shows the defendant with isopropyl alcohol going to and from the crime scene,” the prosecutor said.
ONEONTA – Ricky Knapp, the man convicted of the 1977 death of SUNY Oneonta student, has died in Mohawk Correctional Facility, according to prison records.
Knapp, 66, died March 8, having served 40 years of a 25-to-life sentence for a 1978 manslaughter conviction in the death of 18-year-old Linda Velzy, a SUNY student from Long Island. According to reports, Velzy was last seen Dec. 9 1977, hitchhiking in downtown Oneonta.
Joshua Underwood is led into Otsego County Court by Deputy Leigh Prostak ahead of a hearing last December. (Parker Fish/AllOTSEGO.com)
By LIBBY CUDMORE • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com
ONEONTA – Otsego County’s first slaying of 2017 – on New Year’s morning – happened in an Oneonta apartment with a surveillance camera in every room.
The cameras helped put suspect Joshua Underwood, 25, in the victim’s room, and help convict the man, said District Attorney John Muehl.
Underwood was convicted Friday, March 30, to 20 years in jail.
“Witnesses said they got into a fight about Joshua Underwood having a girlfriend,” said Muehl. “Morrison went to bed, and on video, we have Underwood checking on Morrison. Shortly after that, the video went out, and that’s about the approximate time Morrison was killed.”
Officials say around 3:30 a.m. Jan. 1, 2017, Underwood called 911 and reported that he had killed his boyfriend, 52-year-old Mark Morrison of Oneonta. Police found Morrison dead in his Main Street apartment from what was later ruled to be blunt force trauma to the head. Police also alleged that Underwood tried to conceal the crime by stuffing the apartment doorway with newspapers and setting them on fire.
Though originally scheduled to be sentenced in mid-December, Underwood tried to withdraw his guilty plea for first-degree manslaughter, claiming he was coerced by the public defender’s assistant assigned to the case.
A pair of angel wings hang on the school sign as more than 200 community members gathered at the steps of Morris Central School this evening for a candle light vigil in remembrance of Jacelyn O’Connor. Pastor Brad Keator of the Chenango Christian Church led the gathered in prayers and singing “Amazing Grace”. Friends, family and classmates shared memories of Jacelyn after releasing heart-shaped balloons into the sky. (Ian Austin/AllOTSEGO.com)
NORWICH – Other people were present in the house while Jacelyn D. O’Connor, 11, was allegedly raped and smothered, according to Chenango County District Attorney Joseph McBride.
The names and ages of those present were not given during a hearing for Tobias Rundstrom-Wooding, 34, Norwich, where the DA charged him with murder in the first degree in O’Connor’s death and remanded without bail.The felony complaint lists him as “acting in concert with another in the course and commission of rape in the first degree.”
NORWICH – State Police are investigating the murder of an 11-year-old Morris girl at a home in Norwich.
Jacelyn D. O’Connor, Morris, was found dead after state police responded to a report that a girl had suffered a heart attack at a home at 961 County Route 33, Town of Norwich. Further investigation determined O’Connor was the victim of a homicide, according to the Troop C press release.
NEW LISBON – Otsego County Sheriff’s deputies have taken a man into custody following the death of a 63-year-old man at his home in the Town of New Lisbon.
Sheriff Richard J. Devlin Jr. said that a call came in to Otsego County 911 around 8:45 p.m. and that deputies were sent to the scene, where they found the 63 year old man deceased of a suspected homicide. A suspect was later taken into custody.
Oneonta Police Officers Lindsay Rumenapp and Edmund Donley enter 229 Main St., where 25-year-old Joshua Underwood has been charged in the death of a 52-year-old man at 3:30 a.m. today Underwood called 911 and turned himself in, according to Lt. Doug Brenner. (Ian Austin/AllOTSEGO.com)
District Attorney John Muehl, above, makes his opening remarks to the jury during the opening day of the People Vs. Gabriel Truitt, now underway at the Otsego County Courthouse in Cooperstown. Truitt, seen at right, is charged with arson in the first degree and murder in the first and second degree for his alleged involvement in the fire that claimed the life of John Heller at 5 Walling Ave. in Oneonta on Dec 29, 2018. Check back throughout the day for developments in this case. (Ian Austin/AllOTSEGO.com)
