CATSKILL — A former inmate at Greene Correctional Facility was sentenced to 17 years to life in state prison for his role in the death of his cellmate in 2018, according to the Greene County District Attorney’s Office.
Anthony Paradise, 44, was sentenced by Greene County Court Judge Charles M. Tailleur.
On Nov. 8, 2018, Paradise was incarcerated at the Greene Correctional Facility in Coxsackie when he tore a strip of cloth from a bed sheet and used it to strangle his cellmate, Delmus Tanner. Paradise and Tanner, 38, were double-bunked in a cell in the prison’s Special Housing Unit.
Tanner was taken to Albany Medical Center and placed on life support until Nov. 14, 2018, when he was pronounced dead. He never regained consciousness.
At the time of the attack on Tanner, Paradise was serving a 1 1/3 to 4 year sentence in state prison for a third-degree robbery conviction in Saratoga County. He was convicted in the robbery of the Adirondack Trust Bank in Saratoga Springs in 2017.
Following an intensive investigation by state police, the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision and Greene County District Attorney’s Office, Paradise was indicted by a Greene County grand jury and arraigned April 19, 2019.
After he was charged with Tanner’s murder, Paradise was transferred to the Upstate Correctional Facility in Malone, where he served the remainder of his sentence on the robbery conviction.
On Oct. 20, 2022, Paradise entered a guilty plea to second-degree murder on the third day of jury selection for his trial.
“We have no idea what his motive was,” Greene County District Attorney Joseph Stanzione said. “But we do know that between his sentence in the Washington Correctional Facility and his time at the Greene County Jail he carried out attacks on different inmates at each facility, and he strangled one to death and almost killed another.”
Tanner’s family has filed a lawsuit against New York State in connection with Delmus Tanner’s murder, Stanzione said, but he could not provide any further details.
The case was prosecuted by Greene County Chief Assistant District Attorney David Costanzo and Assistant District Attorney Clement Lalor. Shane Hug of Troy represented Paradise.
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