The four people who held up a gas station employee in December 2008 as he attempted to drop more than $3,500 into the night deposit slot at the NBT Bank branch on Second Avenue have been identified and three of them have been indicted, authorities said.
Though investigators were led to some of the participants soon after the gunpoint robbery, there was not enough evidence to make arrests until recently, Sheriff Thomas J. Lorey said Thursday.
Fulton County District Attorney Louise K. Sira, who obtained indictments against three of the alleged participants on second-degree robbery and third-degree grand larceny counts, said information was developed on the case after the recent arrest of the fourth participant on unrelated charges.
“The sheriff’s investigators had all the basics nailed down; they just needed the final piece,” Sira said.
Lorey said investigators interviewing employees of nearby stores and businesses in the days following the robbery were given the description of a vehicle observed in the area of the bank, located on the south side of the Arterial Shopping Plaza.
Lorey said his investigators pursued the case diligently for all of these months.
“It is a case of good old-fashioned, not-giving-up detective work,” he said.
The victim, Michael J. Fioretti, was held up as he was about to deposit $3,563 in receipts from the nearby Getty station.
The gun displayed by one of the two masked men who approached Fioretti is believed to have been a toy, Lorey said. It was not recovered.
Sira said the men split the money four ways.
The two men who waited in the vehicle and were identified by witnesses, Sira said, are brothers Devin O’Brien, 20, of East Lane, Gloversville, and Matthew O’Brien, 22, of Shady Lane Trailer Park, Fonda.
They and a third man yet to be identified were named in sealed indictments returned last week.
The third man indicted is serving a prison term on a driving while intoxicated conviction and is expected to be returned for arraignment early next week, Sira said.
The fourth suspect has not been charged in the case.
Lorey said the suspects did not know Fioretti and were waiting at the bank but not specifically for him.
“They knew if they waited, they might get lucky,” said Lorey, noting that local businesses often use the night deposit box.
Lorey said the suspects have been involved in various activities that made them known to detectives.
In 2006, Matthew O’Brien pleaded guilty to breaking into the same Johnstown home on two occasions and stealing about $15,000 worth of items. He was sentenced to six months in jail and five years of probation.
Categories: Schenectady County
