Man gets six months in jail for accidentally shooting friend
The Newburgh man who shot a female friend in the face after a night of drinking began a six-month sentence Thursday at the Ulster County Jail.
In June, Darren Olympia, 22, was indicted by an Ulster County grand jury on a felony assault charge stemming from the shooting Feb. 26 at 32 Bingham Road in Marlboro.
After a night at a Newburgh bar, Olympia, who had recently been certified and licensed for a handgun as an armed guard, “for no justifiable reason, produced his loaded pistol,” according to a press release from the Ulster County District Attorney’s Office, and then shot the gun, striking the victim in the forehead.
The victim, who has not been identified, suffered extensive injuries to her forehead and face and has undergone several surgeries and reconstructive procedures to save her life, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
Olympia’s attorney, William J. Garvin of Newburgh, has said his client and the victim were friends who knew each other since the seventh or eighth grade.
Olympia pleaded guilty in July, and, in exchange for the guilty plea, the judge agreed to sentence him to a maximum of six months in the Ulster County Jail, followed by five years of probation, Garvin said at the time.
In the press release Thursday, Ulster County District Attorney Holley Carnright said Olympia’s sentence is “consistent with the victim’s plea to the court for leniency” and his recommendation.
The case was prosecuted by Sr. District Attorney Emmanuel Nneji.