A violent career thief was sentenced today to 20 years to life in prison for a string of 2011 gunpoint kidnap-robberies at Manhattan boutiques.
Albert Anderson, 50, would tie the stores’ female shop clerks up with clothing or plastic zip ties and drag them into a back room before emptying the register and dumping merchandise in a suitcase, according to his own confession statements.
His sentence covers robberies at a jewelry store on Baxter Street in Chinatown, at “Item Boutique” on the Upper East Side, and at the “Sean” men’s boutique on Prince Street, where he was arrested.
“Did you get my friend? He’s the one who had the gun,” Anderson cravenly told cops who chased him down Prince Street to MacDougal Street. Anderson’s accomplice, Anthony Gilliam, 51, is currently serving an 18-year prison term for robbery.
Anderson spoke at today’s sentencing, begging to take back his guilty plea, claiming, “I was not in my right mind… I wasn’t comprehending.”
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice A. Kirke Bartley proceeded with sentencing anyway, reminding Anderson that he’d been given ample opportunity to consider the ramifications of his plea back in November, when he admitted to the three burglaries.
Anderson has five prior felony convictions for robberies and burglaries in Manhattan and Brooklyn stretching back to the 1980s.