A city man will receive eight years in state prison at his January sentencing after admitting last week to using a car to assault and seriously injure a pregnant woman earlier this year, attorneys said.
The woman — and her unborn child — survived the assault and she gave birth later to a healthy baby, a prosecutor said.
Victor J. Thompson, 21, pleaded guilty Thursday in Schenectady County Court to one count of first-degree assault, a felony. He was to stand trial beginning this week.
Prosecutors contended the assault happened as a result of an argument Thompson had with another man March 24 near the corner of Chestnut Street and Victory Avenue in the Vale neighborhood.
Thompson moved to end the argument by stealing a car and intentionally driving it at one of the individuals involved, prosecutors said. He hit that person and a second man, causing comparatively lesser injuries.
Thompson then jumped out of the moving car as it continued on and struck the woman, causing a serious head injury that included a skull fracture, prosecutor Nicolaus Brooks-McDonald said.
“She had nothing to do with the fight or anything along those lines,” Brooks-McDonald said Tuesday. “She was just walking down the sidewalk.”
Police called the car a weapon of opportunity.
Thompson’s defense attorney, Michael Mansion, said the plea came after the defense successfully argued to exclude several statements Thompson allegedly made to police. However, jailhouse phones recorded other incriminating statements made by Thompson that prosecutors were prepared to use at trial.
Thompson was recorded discussing aspects of the case, Mansion said. He didn’t describe them further.
The case would have been a difficult one anyway, Mansion said, noting street camera footage and other evidence.
“It became pretty clear that that would have been awfully difficult to overcome,” Mansion said of the jailhouse recordings.
Thompson pleaded guilty in front of Judge Frank P. Milano. Thompson remains in custody.
Reach Gazette reporter Steven Cook at 395-3122, [email protected] or @ByStevenCook on Twitter.
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Categories: News, Schenectady County
