Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office

                                 25 Kirkpatrick Street, 3rd Floor, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 08901 (732) 745-3300

 

                                *News Release*           Date: May 13, 2010

 
 

       

 

 

 

 

 

New Brunswick man convicted in armed robbery

 

          Middlesex County Prosecutor Bruce J. Kaplan announced that a New Brunswick man was convicted on May 12, 2010, of robbing a 40-year-old woman at knifepoint on a city street as she was walking home from work.

 

          Miguel Gonzalez, (DOB 11/06/85) of 262 Sandford Street, New Brunswick, was found guilty of armed robbery, conspiracy to commit an armed robbery and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose.

 

A jury sitting in New Brunswick acquitted him of a count of criminal sexual contact after rejecting a contention that Gonzalez improperly touched the woman during the robbery.

 

Gonzalez, who remains in custody at the Middlesex County Adult Correction Center in North Brunswick, faces 10 to 20 years in a New Jersey prison when he is sentenced on June 11 by Superior Court Judge Barbara C. Stolte at the Middlesex County Courthouse.

 

Gonzalez also faces deportation to his native Mexico after he completes his sentence for the robbery.

 

During a six-day trial, Middlesex County Assistant Prosecutor Carl Swanson  presented evidence and testimony showing that two men, one of whom later was identified as Gonzalez, approached the woman and robbed her at knifepoint at approximately 3:30 a.m. while she was walking on Baldwin Street in New Brunswick on November 27, 2008.

 

The second assailant, who never was identified or apprehended, held a knife to the woman’s neck. She was robbed of two cell phones, a $20 bill, house keys and a pack of cigarettes.

 

The assailants fled, but were followed by the woman, who flagged down a cab driver. The driver for All Brunswick Taxi Co. followed the men along several city blocks and called police.

 

At one point, the men separated, but Gonzalez happened to walk along Joyce Kilmer Avenue while the woman was explaining the robbery to Officer Michael Phommathep and Officer Dominick Calogero, both of the New Brunswick Police Department.

 

When the woman identified Gonzalez, the officers searched him, recovered one of her cell phones, and arrested him.