A Mount Vernon man has been convicted in the 2012 kidnapping and robbery of a Woodside car dealer, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said Tuesday.
Omar Hutchinson, 32, has been convicted following a two-week trial of robbing a man beneath his Elmhurst apartment building and then tying up the 33-year-old male victim and kidnapping him, the DA said.
“The defendant has now been held accountable for his actions – forcibly abducting and robbing a businessman at gunpoint and threatening to physically harm his family,” Brown said in a prepared statement. “Fortunately the victim – who displayed tremendous courage under pressure – managed to escape his captor, keep his family out of harm’s way and eventually testify against the defendant at trial.”
According to trial testimony, the then 33-year-old male victim was heading home from his Woodside car dealership on the evening of Nov. 9, 2012 when he parked his Jaguar in the parking lot beneath his Elmhurst apartment building, at which time Hutchinson and an unapprehended individual approached him and demanded money while pointing handguns at him. The victim turned over his money, wallet, cell phone, and watch to the two men, who then demanded more from him.
After binding the victim’s hands behind his back and his legs together and gagging him, Hutchinson and his accomplice placed the victim in the back seat of the Jaguar and left on foot, only to return five minutes later and remove the gag and restraints and demand personal property located in the victim’s apartment. Not wanting to go up to his apartment because his wife and infant daughter were there, the victim told the two men that he could get money for them from his bank.
Hutchinson and the accomplice then forced the victim back into his car and drove to the bank. However, the victim was unable to withdraw enough money to satisfy the two criminals, the DA said.
So, the victim told Hutchinson and the other man that he could get money from the owner of a nearby grocery store he knew. The two men let the victim out of the car to go into the grocery store but they threatened to kill his family if he tried anything inside the store. When the victim entered the shop, he borrowed a customer’s phone and called his wife, telling her to leave their home with their child. He then called the police, who tracked Hutchinson down after the criminal called the victim on Nov. 24, 2012 to demand more money, Brown said.
