Two men face 20-year prison terms for Albany robberies

PHOTOGRAPHER: Justin Mason

Roscoe Ervin and Quavuan Young didn’t get much from a pair of street robberies they committed near Albany’s Central Square neighborhood.

In total, the two muggers made off with few credit cards, an identification card and a cell phone during the separate attacks last June, one of which left a city man in clinging to life. Now, their meager plunder is likely to land them in state prison for the next two decades, according to a plea agreement reached with Albany County prosecutors.

Ervin and Young both admitted to one count of felony robbery in Albany County Court Tuesday in consideration of a 14-year prison sentence. Their plea follows an earlier agreement where the two were offered a six-year prison sentence for admitting to the other robbery.

Ervin, 20, Young, 18, and a youth not identified by police followed Lou Stelling to a parking lot near the Albany Medical Center late in the evening on June 13. Ervin then struck Stelling in the head with a large branch before he and Young took his credit card, cell phone and identification.

Authorities believe Stelling may have lain semiconscious in the parking lot at the corner of Morris and Robin streets for nearly seven hours. By dawn, the wounded man managed to walk into the hospital, where he quickly lapsed into unconsciousness.

At first, police had little information about the attack. Stelling was returning home from the Capital Pride 2010 Parade and Festival, prompting initial concern about the attack being bias-motivated; the fears turned out to be unfounded.

Investigators caught a break in the case the day after the attack, when Ervin and Young with a group attempted to use Stelling’s credit card at Crossgates Mall. An alert store clerk suspected the card was stolen and alerted Guilderland police, who stopped the two for questioning. Neither was arrested. Then on June 17, they were among a group that assaulted a pair of women walking near Lancaster Street.

Both men were quickly identified in the second case and were arrested along with 19-year-old Brittany Easter and 16-year-old Jameela Fredrick. Both women pleaded guilty to robbery charges earlier this year and are now facing up to six years in prison; the case against the youth implicated in the June 13 attack on Stelling remains pending, according to prosecutors.

Meanwhile, Stelling remains on the mend from the beating that left him unable to speak and in a medically induced coma for two weeks. Joe Stelling said his brother has made great progress since the attack and is hoping to return to his job teaching at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts next year.

“He’s come a very long way,” he said during a phone interview Tuesday. “But it’s a long process.”

Stelling said his brother is also trying to use his recovery time constructively. Among other things, he’s preparing a book manuscript from his graduate school dissertation.

But nothing will change the ordeal the Stelling family went through following the attack. Though his brother is satisfied with the sentences Ervin and Young are slated to receive, it won’t change the result of their crimes

“Nothing makes it right and nothing makes it OK again,” Joe Stelling said.