Ossining man gets 15 years in hate crime stabbing of 17-year-old girl
WHITE PLAINS, Westchester County (WABC) -- An Ossining man who stabbed a 17-year-old Black girl while making racial epithets in March of 2020 was sentenced Tuesday to 15 years in prison.
Robert McCallion, 36, pleaded guilty in September to 14 felony charges, including second-degree attempted murder as a hate crime, related to the incident and a subsequent attack on a medical professional at Westchester County Jail while he was being held in custody.
"I sincerely apologize for the events that happened that day," he said in court. "There's no excuse for it. I was mentally unstable, off my mental health medication, but still that's not an excuse."
He faced a sentence ranging from a minimum of eight years to a maximum of 25 years in state prison.
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On March 13, 2020, McCallion used anti-Black and anti-Semitic slurs as he stabbed the teenager multiple times in her face, head, hand and back at a North Highland Avenue apartment complex in Ossining where he lived.
The victim, who was at the apartment building visiting family, was a stranger to him.
"McCallion punched her in the face, knocked her to the ground, placed her in a chokehold and then attempted to gouge her eyes out," Westchester County District Attorney Miriam Rocah said.
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 with stab wounds to the face and back, inside the apartment building with her family, 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 in his bedroom, as well as a tactical vest and Nazi propaganda.
Rocah said McCallion became radicalized by following white nationalist organizations.
"This case must serve as a warning, as a wakeup call, about how vicious and divisive rhetoric and hateful propaganda can turn dangerously violent when consumed by certain people," she said.
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The victim did not appear in court, but her father read a statement she wrote.
"I hold my head up high," she wrote. "I will never give up. I'm here, and I'm staying. I live."
Following his arrest, McCallion attacked a medical professional at Westchester County Jail in Valhalla.
"This was a brutal, despicable and cowardly attack by Robert McCallion on an innocent young woman because of the color of her skin," Rocah said. "Hate crimes such as this not only traumatize the victim, but the community as well."
In addition to the second-degree attempted murder as a hate crime charge, McCallion also pleaded guilty to second-degree attempted murder, first-degree assault as a hate crime, first- and second-degree assault, and weapons charges.
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