Wheelchair jewelry thief gets six years - Connecticut Post - CT Post
STAMFORD — The wheelchair bandit who rolled into a mall jewelry store and ran out with a $37,000 Rolex watch pleaded guilty Wednesday.
Making his 18th appearance at the Stamford courthouse since he was extradited from New York on first-degree robbery, larceny and assault charges in May 2015, Larry Johnson, 36, agreed to spend six years in jail for his offenses.
Johnson, of Waterbury, wheeled himself into the Sidney Thomas jewelry store on the fifth-floor of the Stamford Town Center on Aug. 2, 2014, and asked an employee to see a Rolex watch, police said. Once he had a Rolex Daytona in his hand, he jumped out of the wheelchair and maced the employee and a security guard, who he knocked to the ground while running out the store, police said.
Johnson escaped, but Stamford Police Officer Cory Caserta closely examined the wheelchair and managed to find Johnson’s fingerprint on one of the wheels.
Store employees identified Johnson in a photo lineup.
Stamford police said at the time of his arrest Johnson was also a suspect in a similar wheelchair robbery of a jewelry store in White Plains, N.Y. However, Johnson’s attorney, Richard Silverstein, said Wednesday his client had no pending charges there.
Judge Richard Comerford asked Johnson during a brief court appearance on Wednesday if the state’s facts of the case were substantially correct, and he replied, “Yes.”
The six-year sentence, which will be followed by eight years of special parole, was a disposition offered by the court. Senior Assistant State’s Attorney Paul Ferencek declined comment on the case while it remains pending.
Johnson, who has 20 criminal convictions in New York for various crimes, will be sentenced Dec. 7.
jnickerson@scni.com