N.Y. man gets 10 years for Greenwich home invasion


Frank MacEachern, Staff Writer

Updated 10:48 p.m., Friday, May 13, 2011


STAMFORD -- A Port Chester, N.Y., man was sentenced to 10 years in prison Friday for invading the home of a Quarry Knoll resident he knew from church.

Esdras Flores, 41, declined to speak during his brief appearance before Judge Gary White in state Superior Court.

His lawyer Howard Ehring said his client, an illegal immigrant, is facing deportation to his native Guatemala following completion of the sentence.

"My client is greatly remorseful over the whole incident," Ehring said during the sentencing, adding that Flores has no prior criminal record.

Flores has remained in jail since his July 22, 2010, arrest, which occurred days after he invaded the 74-year-old woman's home in the Quarry Knoll public housing complex, threatened her with a toy gun and took off with more than $900. Flores knew his victim from church and was seeking to steal money he had recently repaid her for a loan, police said after his arrest.

Flores pleaded guilty to the charge on Feb. 4. It carried a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison.

The sentencing was agreed upon by both the defense and prosecution, Senior Assistant State's Attorney Richard Colangelo and Ehring told the judge.

Flores was also charged with first-degree robbery, credit card theft and third-degree larceny. Those will be "nollied," as the state declines to pursue them but reserves the right to reopen the case within 13 months if the terms of the plea deal are breached.

During the July 2010 home invasion, a mask-wearing Flores used his son's toy gun to order to get the woman to turn over cash, credit cards and ATM cards with their corresponding PIN codes, according to police reports.

The victim first gave Flores an envelope containing cash she had hidden within her house. Flores told the woman he knew she had more money in the house and demanded that she give it to him. The victim handed over an additional envelope containing about $900 in cash. Flores then took jewelry and fled the area.

Police later obtained still images from a surveillance camera at a Chase Bank in Port Chester showing a man using the woman's ATM card about an hour and a half after the robbery. During subsequent interviews with the victim, police learned Flores recently paid the woman back for money she lent him.

Once police learned about Flores' identity, detectives visited the man's place of employment, Playland amusement park in Rye, N.Y., on July 21. Flores did not show up for work that day, police said.

When police went to his home, Flores agreed to speak with them at police headquarters. At the start of the interview, Flores made up an elaborate story about how he went to church the night of the robbery and was robbed at gunpoint by four males, one carrying a gun, according to police.

Flores told police he drove the men to the victim's house, and after entering, he told the gunmen it belonged to an "old lady."

"The armed gunmen then committed the robbery while Flores stood and watched," according to the report.

Flores went on to describe how the men forced him to withdraw money from the ATM wearing the gunman's Yankees hat and threatened to hurt him if he went to police. As detectives questioned Flores on his initial story, it began to change, they said.

He later confessed to police that he alone had committed the robbery.

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