Newburgh man gets 20 years for 2011 shooting

By Heather Yakin
Times Herald-Record
Published: 2:00 AM - 01/11/13

GOSHEN — A City of Newburgh man was sentenced Thursday to 20 years in prison for shooting another man in the summer of 2011 in Newburgh.

Fredy Gutierrez-Pinto was convicted after a November bench trial of attempted murder, first- and second-degree assault and second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, felonies.

Gutierrez-Pinto fired nine rounds into the victim, Assistant District Attorney Christopher Kelly told Judge Jeffrey Berry in Orange County Court. Kelly asked Berry to impose the maximum 25 years in prison.

Kelly said Gutierrez-Pinto's actions "were methodical, they were planned, they were nearly fatal — and the defendant wanted it that way."

Gutierrez-Pinto's lawyer, Randy Siper, said his client maintains that he was not the shooter, that his name is Orlando Salazar and that he is Honduran, not Guatemalan.

Gutierrez-Pinto, speaking through a court translator, asked the judge to forgive him for entering the U.S. illegally. "It was been the only crime," he said. He reiterated that he's Honduran.

Berry imposed concurrent sentences on all of the counts, making the aggregate 20 years in prison, plus five years of post-release supervision by parole. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has a hold on Gutierrez-Pinto and he'll be subject to deportation upon his release from prison.

Gutierrez-Pinto's co-defendant, Elmer Arana-Murcia, was convicted at trial of misdemeanor falsely reporting an incident, which his lawyer, William Garvin, attributed to a language barrier between Arana-Murcia and a 911 dispatcher. Arana-Murcia was acquitted of the felony charges he faced, including attempted murder.

Berry sentenced him to the maximum of a year in jail. Arana-Murcia, a Guatemalan who also apologized in court for entering the U.S. illegally, will face deportation.

Newburgh man gets 20 years for 2011 shooting | recordonline.com