Man charged with murder in 2018 death
Anthony Abbott, 36, is accused of fatally attacking James Griffin, 68, during a robbery in the older man’s home.
POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. >> A 36-year-old man has been charged with murder for the December 2017 fatal attack on a man in Poughkeepsie, the Dutchess County district attorney said Monday.
Anthony Abbott, of Poughkeepsie, was charged with first- and seconddegree murder, robbery and burglary, according to District Attorney William Grady said. Abbott was arraigned Monday in Dutchess County Court.
Abbott is accused of “intentionally causing the death of 68-year-old city of Poughkeepsie resident James Griffin on December 30, 2017, during the course of robbing the victim and burglarizing his home,” Grady said in a prepared statement. “The victim died as a result of the injuries caused by the defendant during the course of the robbery.”
Griffin, of 2 Wantaugh Ave., Poughkeepsie, was found by police at 1:55 p.m. Jan. 2, 2018, after officers went to check on him at the request of family members who were unable to contact him for several days.
Griffin was taken by ambulance to MidHudson Regional Hospital in Poughkeepsie, underwent brain surgery and was put into a medically induced coma. He died later the same day.
Though not linked to the homicide at the time, Abbott was arrested the day after Griffin died for allegedly forcibly taking narcotics from a pharmacy in Marlborough and trying to carjack two vehicles. He ultimately was sentenced to 3½ to seven years in state prison in that case.
Abbott also was linked to a carjacking earlier the same day in Orange County the town of New Windsor in which the person who was carjacked suffered serious injuries, police said at the time.
in June 2018, Abbott was charged with drug possession after a narcotic was found in his cell at the Ulster County Jail, according to authorities.
Abbott remains behind bars and is due back in court in the murder case on July 26.