Ossining Man Sentenced to 15 Years in Prison for Hate Crime
An Ossining man was sentenced last week to 15 years in state prison for attacking and stabbing a Black female teenager multiple times while shouting racial epithets and anti-Semitic slurs last year in a North Highland Avenue apartment complex.
Robert McCallion, 36, also received five years of post-release supervision by Judge Barry Warhit in Westchester County Court on Nov. 16. He pled guilty on Sept. 9 to 14 felony counts, including Attempted Murder in the Second Degree as a Hate Crime, and multiple counts of assault and weapons charges.
“Horrific hate crimes like this are not only acts of violence against an individual, they are crimes against entire communities,” said Westchester District Attorney Miriam Rocah. “Our hearts go out to this young woman who suffered unimaginable pain and trauma, and we have been determined to secure for her the justice she is due. We know that hate crimes are on the rise nationally, driven by vicious and divisive rhetoric which can turn dangerously violent, and my office will continue to fight back by vigorously prosecuting those who perpetrate these despicable acts.”
On March 13, 2020, McCallion approached the 17-year-old victim at the apartment complex in Ossining where he lived and punched her in the face, knocking her to the ground. McCallion continued to punch the victim in the face, placed her into a chokehold and then attempted to gouge out both of her eyes with his thumbs. When the victim tried to escape and call for help, McCallion smashed her head into the concrete sidewalk multiple times and choked her again.
McCallion then used racial epithets and anti-Semitic slurs as he stabbed the victim many times. The victim’s father intervened and tried to stop McCallion. The attack resulted in multiple stab wounds to the victim’s face, back, flank, hands, and chest, lacerations to the kidney and eyelid, a collapsed lung, and a corneal abrasion in both eyes. The victim, who was at the apartment building visiting family, was a stranger to the defendant.
Ossining Police arrested McCallion after he was found in the parking lot of the apartment complex with blood on his hands and clothes. The knife McCallion used to stab the victim was also found at the scene. Police located the victim, who was bleeding profusely inside the apartment building where she had gone to hide from the defendant, and she was taken to the hospital where she underwent surgery.
During a search of McCallion’s apartment, where he lived with his father, police recovered multiple weapons, including two loaded assault weapons, as well as Nazi and other white nationalist paraphernalia. The FBI and the Westchester County Department of Public Safety assisted the Ossining Police Department with the investigation.
“We’re proud of the outstanding work of our detectives together with our partners at the Office of the District Attorney, the FBI, and the Westchester County Department of Public Safety,” Ossining Police Chief Kevin Sylvester said. “It is our hope that the removal of this dangerous individual from our community will afford the victim and her family an opportunity to heal.”
On March 15, 2020, following his arrest on the Ossining incident, McCallion attacked a medical professional at Westchester County Jail in Valhalla, where he was being held. While receiving medical care, McCallion lunged at the medical professional, punched her in the head, and kicked her in the head and body, with the assault resulting in a fractured nose and a concussion.
Rick has more than 40 years’ experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, running the gamut from politics and crime to sports and human interest. He has been an editor at Examiner Media since 2012. Read more from Rick’s editor-author bio here. Read Rick’s work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/pezzullo_rick-writer/
