Samuel Matias Cruz, Armed Robberies, New Jersey 2013

A Mercer County man has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for his role in a series of armed robberies in the Trenton area, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.

Samuel Matias Cruz, 36, formerly of Trenton, New Jersey, was sentenced to 188 months in prison for committing four armed robberies of commercial establishments in Mercer County, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Cruz pleaded guilty to an information charging him with one count of conspiracy to commit Hobbs Act robberies, U.S. District Judge Michael A. Shipp imposed the sentence today in Trenton federal court.

According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court, between September 2012 and March 2013, Cruz and his conspirators planned and executed a number of violent armed robberies of various commercial establishments in the Trenton area, including gas stations, restaurants, travel agencies and money-remitting businesses.

In several robberies, Cruz and others brandished firearms and physically restrained victims with plastic zip ties before absconding with large quantities of money taken from the respective establishments’ cash drawers and registers.

On one occasion in December 2012, Cruz and two conspirators robbed the Sabor Latino Bar in Trenton. During this robbery, the men held five individuals who were then present in the bar at gunpoint and subsequently restrained them by tying their hands with plastic zip ties. Cruz and the other conspirators then stole approximately $12,000 from the bar’s cash register, as well as approximately $2,000 in cash and jewelry from the bar’s patrons.

In addition to the prison term, Judge Shipp sentenced Cruz to serve three years of supervised release.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Dennis C. Carletta of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Criminal Division in Newark.

Defense counsel is Adalgiza A. Nunez, Newark, NJ.

U.S. Attorney Fishman credited special agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office, the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office, the N.J. State Police, the Trenton Police Department, and the Westampton Police Department with the investigation leading to today’s sentencing.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Dennis C. Carletta of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Criminal Division in Newark.}

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