Almond Upton Indicted for Death of Trooper Christopher Skinner

On Wednesday, a Broome County Grand Jury indicted 60-year-old Almond Upton,of Melrose, Florida on first degree murder charges in the death of trooper Christopher Skinner.

According to reports, on May 29th Upton was recklessly driving on Interstate 81-North in the Town of Chenango and intentionally side-swiping other vehicles. Its then alleged that he purposefully swerved to the shoulder where trooper Skinner was standing beside a vehicle he’d pulled over and that Upton hit tropper Skinner with his vehicle.

Tropper Skinner was pronounced dead at the scene.

In addition to the first-degree murder charge, Upton was also slapped with two counts of second-degree assault, one count of second-degree criminal mischief, all felonies; five counts of reckless driving and two counts of fourth-degree criminal mischief, all misdemeanors.

The assault charges allege that Upton seriously injured two other people with his vehicle also on May 29th.

You might remember that just after he was arraigned in Chenango Upton told reporters that he wasn’t sure how he even ended up in this part of the state.

“I was two miles away from the Connecticut border, and all of a sudden I’m in Binghamton, New York, being beamed to New York,” Upton said. “The cop that got killed, I don’t know how it happened — there had to be a time warp,” he continued. “Honestly, I’m not bullsh-tting. I have proof in Connecticut. It’s a time warp or something had to happen.”

State police were asked about Upton’s state of mind and State Police Superintendent Joseph D’ Amico replied: “I’m not sure what his mental state was at the time of the accident. He did make admissions that he saw the trooper and intentionally struck him.”

Tropper Skinner was a 13-year veteran of the state police. He was engaged to be married in July and is survived by his mom, fiancee and two kids.