Monroe teen pleads guilty to knifepoint robbery

BY ERIKA NORTON
MONROE — A Monroe teen pleaded guilty to first degree robbery on Monday, after police say she allegedly stole car keys from her foster mother by holding the mother’s four-year-old daughter at knifepoint in December.
Eileen Medina, 17, of Monroe, pleaded guilty to first-degree robbery before Orange County Court Judge Craig Stephen Brown in Orange County Court.
According to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office, Medina admitted that on Dec. 11, 2017, while she was at her foster mother’s home in the Town of Monroe, she forcibly stole car keys belonging to her foster mother by physically holding onto the foster mother’s four-year-old daughter, while threatening to use a knife.
The district attorney’s office said that Medina admitted that the she used the knife in a way that made it capable of causing death or serious physical injury to the child and that she held the girl with the knife this way while accompanying the foster mother upstairs to her bedroom to retrieve the car keys, and then back down the stairs, all the time telling the mother not to get close or she would hurt the four-year-old.
“Children are of course the most innocent of victims,” said Orange County District Attorney David Hoovler in a statement. “Any defendant who would threaten a four-year-old girl with a knife in front of her mother is danger to the community, regardless of that defendant’s age.
Under the terms of the plea agreement placed, the District Attorney’s office said it will recommend that Medina be sentenced to nine years in state prison and five years post-release supervision. Medina is scheduled to be sentenced on May 3.