Man gets 17 years in prison for two violent attacks in Cohoes

A man who attacked two people he did not know  in Cohoes was sentenced on Friday to 17 years in prison.

Thomas Spears went on a violent crime spree on June 12, 2023. At around 3 p.m., Spears approached a woman at Columbia Garden Apartments, grabbed her and dug his fingers into her eyes. She was able to escape, but had a hemorrhage in her right eye, according to the Albany County District Attorney’s Office.

Later that night around 11 p.m., Spears stabbed a man in the neck with a screwdriver at Stewart’s Shops on Columbia Street.

The victim read a statement at court saying that he suffers physically and emotionally from the attack.

“It wasn’t just an assault on my body, it was an assault on every part of my life,” he said.

Spears had pleaded guilty in January to second-degree attempted murder, two counts of attempted assault and one count of second-degree assault.