Armed robberies nets admitted thief almost 16 years

A key figure in a series of armed robberies, that terrorized business operators in Burlington and Mercer Counties for six months, heads to prison for 15 years and eight months.

Samuel Matias Cruz, 36, formerly of Trenton, was sentenced today for his role in four holdups that began in September 2012 and continued until March 2013, including the filling station in the New Jersey Turnpike Woodrow Wilson Service Area, according to New Jersey U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman's office.

In exchange for his guilty plea to one count of conspiracy to commit Hobbs Act robberies, Cruz is also required to serve three years supervised release when his sentence is completed.

According to authorities, Cruz admitted working with several others to take sizeable sums from cash drawers and registers of gas stations, money-remitting businesses, restaurants, travel agencies and other businesses, sometimes wielding firearms and binding victims with plastic zip ties.

Information provided by prosecutors highlighted the Turnpike service area robber of December 29, 2012, when a Sunoco employee was bound with zip ties while a gun-toting Cruz and an accomplice took about $26,000 from the register.

Earlier the same month, Cruz and two others entered Trenton's Sabor Latino Bar, held five people inside at gunpoint, bound their hands with zip ties, and got away with about $12,000 from the register, plus cash and jewelry from patrons amounting to another $2,000.

Ensuing investigations drew in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), investigators from Mercer and Burlington County Prosecutor's Offices, New Jersey State Police, and officers from the Trenton and Westampton police forces.