November 20, 1998

NEW JERSEY MAN CONVICTED OF ROBBING AND HOLDING WOMAN HOSTAGE IN HER RIDGEWOOD HOME

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown announced today the conviction of a New Jersey man on charges of robbing and holding a woman hostage in her Ridgewood home.

District Attorney Brown identified the defendant as John Nolan, 38, of 560 Anderson Avenue, Cliffside, New Jersey. The defendant was a former resident of the Ridgewood area. He was convicted of burglary in the first degree, robbery in the first and second degrees, unlawful imprisonment in the first degree and unauthorized use of a vehicle in the third degree after a one week jury trial before Acting Supreme Court Justice William M. Erlbaum. He will be sentenced on January 12, 1999 and faces life in prison as a predicate felon.

According to trial testimony, the defendant and two unapprehended others entered the home of the victim on the morning of August 28, 1997 through an unlocked basement door. The defendant held a gun to the victim's head and demanded to know where she kept her cash and jewelry. He then proceeded to bind her hands with a plastic tie and instructed his two accomplices to go upstairs to a first floor bedroom where they would find the cash and jewelry. The three then escaped with approximately $4,000 in currency and $6,000 worth of jewelry.

Detectives working on the case apprehended the defendant based on a tip to the Crimestoppers Hotline. The victim was able to identify a scar on the arm of the defendant from a photograph and later identified him in a line-up.

Assistant District Attorney Kateri A. Gasper of the Queens District Attorney's Anti-Bias/Youth Gang Bureau, under the supervision of Bureau Chief Mariela P. Stanton, and under the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney James Clark Quinn, prosecuted the case.