April 26, 2000

JAMAICA MAN CONVICTED OF ROBBING WOMAN AT BUS STOP FACES LIFE SENTENCE

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown announced today the conviction of a 28 year old Jamaica man on charges of robbing a young woman waiting at a bus stop in the same neighborhood one morning in January 1999.

District Attorney Brown identified the defendant as Kraig Brown of 114-41 140^th Street, Jamaica. He was convicted after a week long jury trial before Acting Supreme Court Justice John A. Latella. The defendant was found guilty of Robbery in the Second Degree and Criminal Possession of Weapon in the Fourth Degree and faces a mandatory life term when he is sentenced by Justice Latella on May 23.

According to the testimony at trial, the victim, a 27 year old secretary who was on her way to work in Manhattan, was waiting at a bus stop at 116^th Avenue and 142^nd Street when the defendant approached her. When he went up to her he demanded money and tugged at her purse. He then shoved a gun to her side and she relinquished $80. The robber calmly walked away. Two days later as the victim was looking out of her window she spotted the defendant loitering in the same bus stop and she called the police who arrested the defendant a block away.

District Attorney Brown said, "The defendant faces a mandatory life sentence as a result of two prior violent felony convictions for attempted robbery in Kings County. We will ask the court to declare him a persistent violent felon and sentence him accordingly."

Assistant District Attorney Andrea Eckhardt of the Kew Gardens I Supreme Court Bureau which is under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Robert J. Masters and the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney James C. Quinn, prosecuted the case.