A Maspeth man last week pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree burglary and will serve a six-year prison sentence stemming from his participation in a series of residential break-ins last February, including one in which a box containing the cremated remains of an Ozone Park resident’s mother was stolen, according to Queens District Attorney Richard Brown.
Randolph Ardila, 30, who has been held on Rikers Island in lieu of $150,000 bail since his arrest in February, formally entered a guilty plea last Thursday. His next court court date is Feb. 13, at which time Ardila will be sentenced to six years in prison and five years’ post-release supervision.
According to the charges, Ardila acted as a lookout between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. on Feb. 21, 2014, while two other unapprehended individuals allegedly attempted to burglarize residences on 77th Avenue in Glendale. Pry marks made with a tool like a screwdriver were observed on the front doors.
At approximately 4:50 p.m. on the same day, police allegedly saw two people enter an apartment building on 103rd Avenue in Ozone Park and Ardila park a gray BMW near the same building before exiting the vehicle and acting as a lookout. A few minutes later, three people exited the building, two of whom were carrying bags, Brown said. One of the bags was placed in the gray BMW that Ardila was driving. Police then observed Ardila entering the BMW on the driver’s side and saw what appeared to be a container on or with the bag. The other suspects allegedly entered a blue Honda and the two vehicles then drove away.
At the time of Ardila’s arrest, he was carrying a blue plastic container filled with change and a twenty-dollar bill—which had been reported missing from an apartment at the Ozone Park location—and had a screwdriver in his possession. Police also recovered a box containing the cremated ashes of a tenant’s mother—which had been reported stolen from a second apartment at the Ozone Park location in the other vehicle.
