Teen gets eight years in prison for his role in robbery, assault of woman who was abducted from a CT grocery store parking lot
A teenager who, along with an accomplice, abducted a then-64-year-old woman at gunpoint from a Marlborough supermarket parking lot in 2021 and pistol-whipped her multiple times, was sentenced to prison on Wednesday on robbery and conspiracy charges.
Rochene Wiggins, 17, was handed an eight-year prison term during a hearing in Hartford Superior Court where the victim, through a letter read by a victim’s advocate, said she still is still suffering from the physical injuries and emotional trauma she experienced when she was violently robbed and kidnapped on Sept. 11, 2021.
During the proceedings, Superior Court Judge David Gold ordered Wiggins to serve three years of probation once he is released from prison. While on probation, he will face the potential of 10 additional years behind bars if he violates any conditions.
Warrant for suspect in Marlborough abduction of woman describes bloody, harrowing scene
Wiggins, who was 15 at the time of the crime, was prosecuted as an adult based on the seriousness of the charges. His sentencing Wednesday came after he previously pleaded guilty under the Alford doctrine to charges of first-degree robbery and conspiracy to commit second-degree kidnapping. An Alford plea means Wiggins contends some of the allegations but acknowledges prosecutors likely have enough evidence to convict him.
According to court officials, Wiggins and Kenneth Gordon, 22, approached a 64-year-old woman in the parking lot of the Big Y in Marlborough and demanded money. The suspects attacked the woman when she resisted their demands, breaking her leg during a violent assault.
Court officials said the suspects then put a bag over the victim’s head and forced her at gunpoint into her car before driving her to multiple ATMs, demanding her pin number and withdrawing money from her account. In a letter read by a victim’s advocate Wednesday, the woman said the suspects threatened several times to kill her and pistol-whipped her multiple times. She said she was fortunate not to be wearing her wedding ring that day, as the assailants made her give them all the jewelry she was wearing.
The woman also said she needed stitches above one of her eyes and a metal rod placed in her broken leg. Earlier this month, she attended what she hopes will be her final physical therapy session more than two years after the attack. The woman said she still has trouble sleeping due to fears that one of her assailants will break into her home, as the suspects stole her driver’s license during the incident and could have obtained her address.
According to court officials, Gordon and Wiggins eventually stopped on Hummingbird Lane in Berlin and told the 64-year-old to get out of the car. She could not move because her leg was broken, so one of the suspects got out of the car and pulled the woman out, dumping her in the street.
Police were called to the area at about 9 p.m. after the victim screamed for help. The woman was taken to an area hospital, where she spent three days before her release.
After ditching the victim, Gordon and Wiggins set the woman’s car on fire behind a nearby liquor store in Berlin. Neither suspect was charged in the case until March 2022.
During the sentencing Wednesday, Gold said he was torn about imposing such a lengthy prison term on someone who he said was just a boy at the time of the crime.
“This is heartbreaking,” Gold said.
Gold asked Wiggins to imagine how he would feel had his mother or grandmother been the victim of a crime as violent and terrifying as the one Wiggins and Gordon committed.
“I just cannot get past the terror this woman must have felt,” Gold said, adding that she must have wondered if she was going to make it out of the situation alive and ever see her family again.
Gordon was also expected to be sentenced Wednesday after previously pleading guilty to the same charges as Wiggins. His case was continued until October.
