Norwalk Man Sentenced For Local Bank Robbery

By Andrew Gorosko

In a plea bargain agreement, a Danbury Superior Court judge this week sentenced a Norwalk man to an 18-month prison sentence for his part in the robbery of Fleet Bank on Queen Street last March.

Judge Robert Resha on Tuesday sentenced Eric Duffey, 28, of Norwalk after Duffey had pleaded guilty to a charge of third-degree robbery. As part of the plea bargain, a charge of conspiracy to commit third-degree robbery against Duffey was not prosecuted.

Town police, state police, and FBI agents investigated the bank robbery, which was the first theft from a local bank since a 1905 bank burglary.

Duffey, who was not able to post bond after being charged on March 17 for the March 13 robbery, had been held at Bridgeport Correctional Center. The time Duffey has already served will be deducted from his 18-month sentence, according to attorney Dennis McDonough of Bethel, who served as Duffey’s public defender in the case.

The State Department of Correction will decide how much more time Duffey serves in prison.

Duffey could have served up to 10 years in prison had he been found guilty of the crimes in a jury trial.

 Mr McDonough questioned whether the actions of Duffey at the bank actually met the legal requirements for a charge of third-degree robbery.

According to Newtown police arrest warrant affidavits: Duffey, who was wearing a dark blue hooded sweatshirt when he entered the bank about 10:15 am March 13, approached a teller and displayed a handwritten note which stated, “Hand me your $20’s, $50’s, and $100’s, or else…” The bank teller handed Duffey an amount of money which the bank later determined to be $9,480. The teller triggered a silent alarm alerting police of the robbery. There were no injuries in the incident.

The arrest warrant affidavits make no mention of Duffey showing a weapon while he was in Fleet Bank.

Eyewitnesses had seen Duffey flee the bank to a corner of the Newtown Shopping Village parking lot. An eyewitness later saw a silver gray Volkswagen emerge from behind a building where Duffey had fled. The car then drove off from the shopping center.

A witness told police that the Volkswagen containing three men had been at the Amoco gas station on Church Hill Road, about a mile away, just before the bank robbery.

Police learned that the men had paid $1 in pennies to buy gasoline and then left the gas station. Police seized the videotape from the gas station’s video surveillance camera for photographic evidence. From the surveillance videotape, police obtained still photos of the three men and the Volkswagen, providing evidence for their investigation.

The three men who were implicated in the robbery had been released from the Cornerstone of Eagle Hill substance abuse treatment center on Alberts Hill Road just minutes before the bank robbery occurred.

The criminal case against William Caputo, 44, of Hartford, who police say drove the Volkswagen from the bank, is still pending.

Police initially had sought a third suspect in the case, who allegedly was inside the Volkswagen with Caputo and Duffey. Police action to apprehend the third suspect has been withdrawn, said Detective Robert Tvardzik.