Blooming Grove - Kevin C. Kruger found himself in familiar territory last night – Orange
County Jail.
This time - his third stay since 1997 - he spent the night behind bars on charges he tried
to kill a 52-year-old woman after he broke into her Mountain Lodge Park home.
Police arrested Kruger, 26, yesterday at a detox facility in Middletown and charged him
with second-degree attempted murder and first-degree burglary, both felonies.
Blooming Grove Detective Brett Weeden said Kruger broke into the woman's Sylvan
Trail home at about 1:40 a.m. Monday. She woke to find Kruger pressing a pillow over
her face, police said. Her screams sent him fleeing.
Police got a tip later that day that Kruger was seeking treatment for cocaine use. Officers
kept watch Monday night to make sure Kruger, who lives in Blooming Grove, didn't
leave while they waited for a search warrant, Weeden said.
Shortly after noon yesterday, with warrant in hand, police handcuffed Kruger. He told
investigators he had been high on drugs the day of the break-in.
State police forensic and Orange County district attorney's investigators helped on the
case. Fingerprints collected from the break-in were matched to Kruger, according to court
records.
Kruger, a father of two, appeared in Blooming Grove Town Court yesterday to face the
most recent charges, as well as indecent exposure charge for an unrelated July 7 incident
in which police say he chatted with a woman all the while his penis was exposed.
Kruger asked Town Justice Daniel Brown not to send him to jail without bail, as
recommended by prosecutors, because he needs to work to pay child support. Brown
denied his request and sent him to jail without bail.
He is to appear in Town Court again tomorrow.
His criminal rap sheet includes arrests as far back as 1997 for offenses ranging from
trespassing to selling marijuana to assault.