One of the men who killed a Pearl River teenager in 1980 has been sentenced to 10 months in jail for contacting a Peekskill woman he had harassed in violation of an order of protection.
Appearing in Peekskill City Court on Monday, Aug. 31, Robert McCain was given the sentence he was promised when he pleaded guilty earlier this month to second-degree criminal contempt.
The arrest on June 27 came when the woman reported that McCain had tapped on the window of her car, smiled and appeared to say something when she was stopped at a traffic light at Washington and South streets. It was his third arrest resulting in three parole revocations since he was released from prison in 2021 after four decades following his conviction in the murder of Paula Bohovesky.
In November he was arrested after the Peekskill woman, who met him at the car-repair shop where he worked, reported that he had taken a license plate off her car and threatened her by saying her mother would never find her body. The order of protection that was issued after he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to jail was the one he violated in June when he tapped on her car window.
The woman came to court Monday morning expecting to make a victim impact statement. She left for a while but by the time McCain's case was called she had not returned. She told The Journal News/lohud later that the prosecutor told her she might not be given the chance to speak because the defense had not been notified that she planned to give a statement.
Victim wants concerns taken seriously
Despite two arrests of McCain based on her complaints, she suggested that allowing McCain to go free after his first arrest involving her sent the wrong message.
“I don’t want my mother to have to bury her child before my concerns are taken seriously,” she said in a statement. “I shouldn’t have to be physically harmed or worse for the system to recognize how afraid I am."
She referenced McCain's prior conviction "for the murder of a woman of similar size and stature to me," and his statements that made her fearful. "I cannot treat an unwanted encounter as insignificant," she said.She said she has done everything victims are told to do - providing evidence, appearing in court - but wants to be left alone and no longer fearful.
"I want to be able to work, drive through my community, spend time with my family, and live a normal life without constantly looking over my shoulder," she said. "My giving a statement today is simply in hopes that my concerns are taken seriously before Robert McCain does something to me that can’t be undone.”
Brutal murder in Pearl River
McCain and Richard LaBarbera attacked Bohovesky on Oct. 28, 1980, as the Pearl River High School junior walked home from her after-school library job. She was beaten and stabbed. They were both convicted of second-degree murder the following year and sentenced to the maximum, 25 years to life in prison.
Despite coming up for parole in 2005, each was denied multiple times before LaBarbera was released in 2019 and McCain two years later.
LaBarbera had one parole violation for getting drunk in 2020, served an extra three weeks in prison, and is no longer on parole supervision.
McCain was arrested last year after a woman told police he groped her at a Cortlandt dog park. He pleaded guilty to forcible touching, a misdemeanor, and was sentenced to four months in jail.
Peekskill Judge Sophia Trott ordered the new jail sentence to run at the same time as the 10-month prison term assessed for his latest parole violation. She also issued a new order of protection barring McCain from any contact with the woman for five years. She emphasized the warning for him to stay away from her once he is released.
"You see her, go to the other side of the street," she told him.
McCain, who has had heart and other health problems over the past two years and relied on a walker in court, told the judge he understood.
Defense lawyer Matthew Montana said he expects McCain to serve the entire sentence in the county jail although state and county corrections officials have suggested McCain could be headed back to prison for some of that time. Montana declined to comment further.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Rockland murder parolee gets jail for violating protection order
