A Queens man was sentenced to 22 years in prison and five years of post-release supervision on Thursday, July 24, for a 2020 incident at The Home Depot in Levittown that left a victim without the proper use of one of his wrists after he was hit by a car, according to Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly.
Joshua Mitchell, 29, was convicted on May 8 of assault, leaving the scene of an incident resulting in serious physical injury and aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle.
Donnelly said she recommended the maximum sentence of 25 years in prison.
Donnelly said that on June 17, 2020, Mitchell was seen by an asset protection officer at The Home Depot placing 91 expensive plumbing items into a 54-gallon bin in a shopping cart and proceeding toward the exit without paying. The total amount of merchandise found in the defendant’s cart was valued at $3,321.29, the DA said.
When the officer approached Mitchell in the vestibule area, Mitchell began to push and shove the cart into the officer before abandoning the cart and running back through the store and out a different exit, Donnelly said. Mitchell then got into a silver Hyundai Elantra with fake Pennsylvania license plates and began to drive away, the DA said.
Donnelly said a man who was working at the store as a kitchen designer followed Mitchell to the parking lot to stop him. According to the DA, Mitchell drove his car toward the victim, hitting and launching him into the air, and then proceeded to drive out of the parking lot and onto Hempstead Turnpike.
Donnelly said the victim was taken to St. Joseph’s Hospital, where he was diagnosed with a fractured wrist, and it was later determined that he had a broken radius bone, a broken scaphoid bone and a torn ligament in his wrist, as well as a torn rotator cuff and torn labrum in his shoulder.
The victim underwent three surgeries later that year and was told that he would not regain any motion in his wrist, his thumb, or have any finger grip strength, Donnelly said.
Mitchell was arrested on Sept. 24, 2020, at his home.
“The victim was only trying to do the right thing, and everyday tasks are now anything but that because of this defendant’s reckless and criminal actions,” Donnelly said. “The sentence handed down today reflects the serious harm this defendant caused, and the consequences of doubling down on a crime.”
