June 4,1998

FAR ROCKAWAY MAN CONVICTED OF ROBBING COLLEGE STUDENT IN THE REDFERN PROJECTS

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown announced the conviction of a 26 year old Far Rockaway man for the robbery of a college student living with his parents in the Redfern Projects.

District Attorney Brown identified the defendant as William Stockdale of 14-64 Beach Channel Drive, Far Rockaway. He was convicted after a four day trial before Supreme Court Justice Mark H. Spires.

According to trial testimony, during the afternoon of January 11, 1996, the victim, who was sixteen at the time, called a local pizzeria for hero sandwiches. He went downstairs to meet the deliveryman and was spotted by the defendant and another man, Ronald Smothers, who previously pled guilty and is serving a 3-9 year prison term. The two robbers watched as the teenager paid the deliveryman and then followed the teenager back into the building and onto the elevator where the defendant Stockdale pulled out a black semi-automatic pistol and forced the victim off the elevator.

The defendant and his accomplice then forced the teenager into a stairwell and robbed him of his jewelry and $8.00 in cash. They then brought the teen back to the first floor where they told him to get on the floor and warned him to "get dawn on your knees and look away." After robbing the teen of his brown leather jacket. The two defendants left. The victim then went to his apartment and called the police. At the 101st Precinct, the victim was able to identify Stockdale from a photograph. Stockdale was then arrested on January 18, 1997, still wearing the victim's brown leather jacket.

The defendant will be sentenced on June 24 and faces a maximum sentence of up to 25 years to life in prison.

Assistant District Attorney Robert Hanophy of the Queens District Attorney's Career Criminal Major Crimes Bureau, under the over all supervision of Charles A. Testagrossa, Bureau Chief, and Deputy Bureau Chief James W. Evangelou, prosecuted the case.