KINGSTON — A New City man who authorities say admitted to killing a guard and abducting a nurse at an upstate drug rehabilitation clinic was indicted by an Ulster County grand jury Tuesday.
Richard Giga, 25, of Birch Lane was charged with two felony counts of second-degree murder in the death of Leland Wood, 61, a guard at the 100-bed Renaissance Center near Ellenville, N.Y., the Ulster County District Attorney's Office said.
Giga was also charged with two felony counts of first-degree assault, accused of forcing a 35-year-old nurse at the center to drive him away from the scene. Giga is also accused of stabbing her in the abdomen, causing her to crash her car.
Giga had been receiving drug counseling at the rehabilitation clinic.
On Oct. 15, Ulster County District Attorney D. Holley Carnright said that Giga admitted his role in the Oct. 6 crimes to state investigators.
Carnright said a surveillance video shows Giga returning to the clinic and assaulting Wood with a kitchen knife in the early morning hours.
Fifteen hours later, after a two-hour standoff with police, Giga was arrested in an unoccupied home in Wawarsing, N.Y., not far from the Renaissance Center.
In his statement Tuesday, Carnright did not comment on the attack on the nurse.
Giga was being treated at the clinic following an order from Rockland County Judge Charles Apotheker.
In 2008, Giga was convicted of grand larceny in Rockland County Court in connection with an attack on three Hispanic youths on South Little Tor Road in New City. Giga, who is believed to have shouted racial slurs at the group during the attack, slammed into a 20-year-old, punched a 15-year-old, took a 17-year-old into a headlock and broke the 17-year-old's cell phone, authorities said.
Giga had been charged with five felony charges of robbery and assault and three misdemeanors for his role in the incident, but a state Road to Recovery program determined that he had a drug and alcohol problem. Giga instead pleaded guilty to the grand-larceny count for stealing the cell phone and was sentenced to complete a 12-month program at Renaissance by Apotheker.
Giga completed the program but relapsed. He was forced to return.
Giga's case is not expected to go to trial until the spring, Carnright said.
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