A burglar who wreaked havoc in the east Bronx, including ransacking a local assemblyman’s apartment, is facing up to five years in jail and five more under supervision when he comes up for sentencing next week.
Michael Hererra, 34, is believed responsible for a string of burglaries in Country Club over a three-month stretch.
He was finally caught Jan. 28, 2013, and pleaded guilty March 13 of this year in Bronx state Supreme Court to only one burglary – at east Bronx state Assemblyman Michael Benedetto’s apartment.
Second-story job
Police said he entered through a bedroom window next to a fire escape in the early evening of Oct. 5, 2012 at the elected’s Bruckner Blvd. building and made off with about $250 in cash and several pieces of women’s jewelry worth close to $3,000, according to Benedetto’s affidavit.
Benedetto said that when he returned home he noticed the bedroom window, which had been closed, was open, then discovered all the jewelry missing.
“He cleaned him out pretty good,” said a police source.
“It’s never a good feeling to see that someone has broken into your home and stolen your possessions,” said Benedetto, “especially some things that had good memories.”
And, he added candidly, “I was really stupid, not locking the window next to the fire escape. I’m just really grateful to the NYPD for making an arrest.”
Sentencing Monday
Herrera, who has a previous burglary-related arrest in Queens, is due back in court on Monday, March 31 for sentencing by Justice Denis Boyle on his guilty plea to attempted burglary in the second degree.
He has been in custody since his arrest, and despite the maximum five-year term, could likely receive both time served and a lesser sentence.
Hererra will also have to spend five years under probation supervision after his release from prison.
“A big mistake”
He was originally indicted by a Bronx grand jury on Feb. 3, 2013 on a string of felony charges, including two counts of burglary, grand larceny, petit larceny, criminal possession of stolen property, and trespassing.
In a signed confession, he told the arresting officer, Detective Bobby Rogers of the 45th Precinct detective squad, that he was sorry, stating “I am a very hard working man. But because I don’t want to justify the wrong that I did I am just going to say that its just hard out in New York City keeping a job… [I] made a big mistake that now changed my life.”
