According to an oceancountysignal.com report, a man robbed a Toms River Stride Rite on Hooper Avenue on March 22, just one day after being released from prison for robbing the exact same store fifteen years earlier. Officers have determined that the suspect who robbed the store of $389.00 from its cash register and the cell phones its two present employees after they refused his demands to give him their car keys and to go to the back of his store. Officer responding to the scene found the suspect blocks away on Feathertree Drive. Using scent dogs, He was released from South Woods State Prison on March 21, and took a bus from Atlantic City to Toms River.
In 1999, store employees at the same Stride Rite were victims of robbery when the very same suspect tied them up in a rear storage room and fled with cash. K-9 Officer Kyle Martucci located the cell phones in a nearby garbage can and cash in a gutter downspout with police dog, Cyrus.
Robbery is a serious indictable offense in New Jersey. The elements of robbery are 1) Defendant committed a theft or attempted to commit a theft; 2) Defendant inflicted bodily injury, threatened to put in fear of bodily injury, or used force or threatened to commit any crime of the first or second degree; 3) Conduct occurred at the time of the [attempted] theft, or the immediate flight thereof; and 4) Defendant acted purposely; even if bodily injury was inflicted recklessly.
A first-degree robbery occurs when a weapon is used, when serious bodily injury or death results, if death or attempted murder occurs during its commission. A second-degree robbery is punishable by 10-20 years in state prison. A second-degree robbery is punishable by 5-10 years in state prison and occurs when force or the threat of force is used in the commission of a robbery.
The attorneys at the William Proetta Criminal Law, conveniently located in Toms River, represent clients who face Theft and Robbery charges throughout Ocean County. Please remember that criminal charges are not the same as a conviction and that all defendants are innocent until proven guilty.
