Jury finds Bussey guilty of murder

GOSHEN – An Orange County Court jury Wednesday afternoon returned a guilty verdict in the murder trial of Monroe Bussey.

Bussey, 29, and two other men were charged with beating Jeffrey Beary to death in Newburgh last year, and then dumping his body in a creek in the City of Poughkeepsie, where a jogger found it.

The jury deliberated for two hours on Tuesday and for six hours Wednesday before returning the guilty verdict on two counts of second-degree murder, said District Attorney Frank Phillips.

One is for depraved indifference murder and the other county, felony murder for a murder committed during another crime.

Regardless of the theory under which the jury convicts a defendant, the charge carries a 25 year to life sentence in state prison.

Two alleged accomplices of Bussey await trial on similar charges.