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Barzola has pleaded guilty to first-degree burglary for his role in the violent home invasion of an elderly Bayside couple in April 2014.
By Forum Staff
A Brooklyn man has entered a guilty plea on charges that he robbed and brutally assaulted an elderly Bayside couple in 2014.
Vincente Barzola, has pleaded guilty to first-degree burglary for the violent home invasion of the husband and wife’s apartment back in April of 2014.
Barzola, now 41, and an accomplice, now also in custody, impersonated building maintenance personnel at the couple’s door.
When Barzola rang the doorbell, the 85-year-old wife let him in after he told her she needed to sign a maintaineance form for the building.
The pair of thugs stormed the door as soon as she unlocked it, and bound her wrists with plastic ties. Her husband, 87 at the time, was asleep in the upstairs bedroom where the bandits woke him violently, tied his wrists with plastic ties and pepper-sprayed him in the face.
The defendant pleaded guilty to first-degree burglary before Queens Supreme Court Justice Richard L. Buchter, who indicated he would sentence Barzola to 12 years in prison to be followed by two and a half years’ post release supervision.
“The victims in this case – both octogenarians – weren’t just robbed of their precious possessions,” said District Attorney Brown. “The defendant also stole their sense of security that they were safe in their own home… and will be sentenced to a lengthy term of incarceration.”
Barzola ransacked the home and stole a safe that contained more than $15,000 in cash along with gold and diamond jewelry.
