Sullivan County District Attorney Jim Farrell announced on January 8 that Yahya Robinson, 30, of Monticello, N.Y. was sentenced in Sullivan County Court to 25 years in state prison and 5 years of post-release supervision for the homicide of 33 year old Shereem Burch, also of Monticello, that occurred on August 7, 2014.

Farrell said that Robinson pled guilty to one count of Manslaughter in the 1st Degree and admitted to fatally stabbing Burch at the West Broadway Villas in the Village of Monticello, where Burch lived, after a dispute. Robinson received the maximum sentence permitted by law for manslaughter.

Robinson was arrested after an investigation by the Monticello Police, the New York State Police, the New York State Police Forensic Investigation Unit and the Sullivan County District Attorney's Office. Farrell said that this case, like many other cases, was solved by good old fashioned police work, with investigators interviewing people and developing witnesses, leads and evidence, using that time honored technique.

The weapon used by Robinson, a knife, was recovered in an apartment where he was hiding after the stabbing and the New York State Police crime laboratory in Albany, N.Y. was able to forensically determine it was used in the homicide. Farrell said that all of the law enforcement agencies worked together, in tandem, to successfully investigate, apprehend and prosecute Robinson in this case.

“It is important that the community knows that when something tragic like this happens there are a group of dedicated men and women in law enforcement who jump into action to seek the truth and to determine the facts of what happened and that our primary goal in all of these cases is to bring justice to the victims of these crimes and to the perpetrators. A young man’s life was taken, senselessly, and for that Robinson has been held accountable with a sentence of 25 years in prison.”, Farrell said. Robinson also waived his right to appeal in this matter.