A 36-year-old Westchester County man pleaded guilty Tuesday to 14 felony charges, including attempted murder as a hate crime, for repeatedly stabbing a 17-year-old Black girl he didn't know who happened to be visiting family in the apartment complex where the defendant lived last year, officials say.
Robert McCallion faces up to 25 years in state prison at sentencing in November.
Prosecutors say he used racial slurs as he stabbed the 17-year-old victim multiple times on March 13, 2020, at a North Highland Avenue apartment complex in Ossining where he lived. The victim was a stranger to him at the time.
McCallion was arrested after he was found in the parking lot of the apartment complex with blood on his hands and clothes. The knife he used to stab the victim was also found at the scene.
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The teenage victim was found bleeding profusely with stab wounds to the face and back inside the apartment building with her family. She underwent surgery. No update on her condition was immediately available Tuesday afternoon.
Officials say police recovered multiple weapons, including two loaded assault weapons, from the apartment where McCallion lived with his father at the time. The two assault weapons were located in his bedroom.
Two days after his arrest, prosecutors say McCallion attacked a medical professional at Westchester County Jail in Valhalla, where he was being held.
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“This was a brutal, despicable and cowardly attack by Robert McCallion on an innocent young woman because of the color of her skin,” Westchester County District Attorney Miriam Rocah said in announcing the plea on Tuesday. “Hate crimes such as this not only traumatize the victim, but the community as well, and will be prosecuted aggressively by this office.”
