ALBANY, NEW YORK – A 35-year-old man was convicted Wednesday of two felony charges after wearing a clown mask and brandishing a chainsaw in an upstate New York neighborhood earlier this year.
A jury in Albany County Court found the man guilty of first-degree menacing and third-degree criminal possession of a weapon for the May 1 incident in Cohoes. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 6, facing two to seven years in prison.
According to the district attorney, surveillance footage showed the man walking through the neighborhood in a clown mask and a football jersey while carrying a red chainsaw in the mid-afternoon. A local resident confronted him, and during the encounter, the man removed a plastic sheath from the chainsaw and raised it in a threatening manner. The resident managed to subdue him until the police arrived, who also discovered metal knuckles on the defendant.
The jury reached the verdict after a two-day trial and two hours of deliberation. The defendant did not testify, and the defense presented no witnesses. Prosecutors called four witnesses and presented the video footage during the trial. The man and his public defender did not respond to messages seeking comment.