Man sentenced to 25 years in prison for Yonkers armed home invasion
A North Carolina man was sentenced on Friday to 25 years in prison for a Yonkers armed home invasion, Westchester County District Attorney Mimi Rocah’s office said.
Confessor Soto, 50, was acquitted of charges of second-degree attempted murder and first-degree attempted assault, but a jury found him found guilty in October of second-degree assault, two counts of first-degree burglary, first-degree attempted robbery, and second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, all felonies.
Soto will also be subject to five years of post-release supervision.
On April 23, 2018, at about 7:30 a.m., Soto entered a Leighton Avenue home through the backdoor with zip-ties and armed with a .45 caliber semi-automatic handgun, and restrained the 82-year-old homeowner, according to the district attorney’s office.
Soto, wearing sunglasses and a bandana, forced the homeowner into her 54-year-old daughter's bedroom and demanded the younger woman turn over money at gunpoint before firing a shot that grazed the top of the daughter’s head, the Journal News reported. The daughter said she didn't have money. The daughter ran out of the home and got someone to contact the police as the gunman left.
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Soto was captured on video surveillance fleeing the scene, according to the district attorney’s office, and police recovered the gun used during the incident, along with the defendant's clothes, bandana and sunglasses, in the vestibule of a South Broadway apartment in the Bronx.
Soto's lawyer could not be immediately reached for comment.
At the three-week trial's end, Soto testified it was a case of mistaken identity, acknowledging being in the neighborhood, visiting the area to help a friend scout out businesses like one she wanted to open in North Carolina, Soto's lawyer has said.
Soto said the jacket and gun weren't his, but that a bandana and hat found near them were his.
Soto also attributed DNA on the gun and jacket to secondary transfer after police had picked up his bandanna. The jury rejected that assertion.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation took Soto into custody in Fayetteville, North Carolina, on April 30, 2019, after a joint investigation among Yonkers police, the Westchester County District Attorney’s office, the Westchester County Department of Public Safety, and FBI’s Westchester Safe Streets Task Force.
Michael P. McKinney is a breaking news reporter with The Journal News, Poughkeepsie Journal and Times Herald-Record of Middletown.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: North Carolina man gets 25 years for Yonkers NY home invasion
