A former worker at an East Hanover Babies ‘R’ Us store is headed to prison after being convicted of committing an armed robbery.
The suspect, a 24-year-old East Orange NJ man, allegedly held up two other employees at the Route 10 store on July 19, 2014. According to Morris County prosecutors, the suspect waited until the Babies ‘R’ Us was closed for the night and then approached the two victims. He allegedly pointed a firearm at the victims and forced them to remove roughly $5,500 in cash from a store safe.
The Morris County Sheriff’s Office and the East Hanover Police Department conducted a joint investigation into the theft and eventually identified the suspect as the likely culprit.
The suspect was charged with numerous crimes, including robbery, burglary, kidnapping, unlawful possession of a weapon, and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose.
Now the suspect has been convicted on most of the criminal charges. A jury in Morris County Superior Court, located in Morristown, issued the guilty verdicts approximately one hour after closing arguments in the trial. On the charge of kidnapping, however, the jury found the suspect guilty of a lesser offense of false imprisonment.
The suspect will have to return to Morris County Superior Court at a later date for a formal sentencing hearing. Although he was previously being held in jail on a $150K bail amount, his bail was revoked after the jury convicted him.
For more information about this case, read the DailyRecord.com article, “Jury Convicts Man of Robbing Babies ‘R’ Us in East Hanover.”