Photos courtesy of the Delaware County Sheriff's Office.
After a year-long investigation, Delaware County police have made three arrests in the case of a 2012 armed home invasion and robbery in the town of Tompkins.
Arrested on Tuesday, on sealed grand jury indictment warrants, were three Delaware County residents: 27-year-old Andrew Dougherty of Delhi, 27-year-old Amanda Gahan of Walton, and 32-year-old Leon Grizzard of South Kortright, according to a statement from the Delaware County Sheriff's Office. The three are accused of breaking into a Tompkins home in June of 2012, and robbing the residents at gunpoint of cash and drugs. All three face charges of first-degree robbery, first-degree burglary, petit larceny and fourth-degree criminal mischief.
The first-degree burglary and robbery charges are both class B violent felony offenses. If convicted, the three could face up to 25 years in prison.
The investigation also led to the seizure of heroin, marijuana and hypodermic needles from a Hobart home, where Grizzard and Gahan were arrested on Tuesday. Delaware County police and state troopers searched the home with the aid of "Ozzie," the Delaware County Sheriff's Office's new K-9.
After drugs were found in the Hobart home, Gahan was arrested and charged with seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance and criminal possession of a hypodermic instrument, in addition to the charges in the grand jury warrant. Grizzard and another man, 35-year-old Jeremy Key of Hobart, were arrested on charges of criminal possession of a hypodermic instrument and unlawful possession of marijuana, a violation.
Dougherty was arrested in the Delaware County Correctional Facility, where he is serving a sentence on an unrelated conviction.
Dougherty, Gahan and Grizzard were arraigned before county judge Carl Becker on Wednesday afternoon, and remanded to the Delaware County Correctional Facility without bail. Gahan, Grizzard and Key will appear in Stamford town court to answer to the lesser drug charges at a later date.
Update, 1pm: In a story about Tuesday's arrests, the Daily Star reports that the victims of the 2012 home invasion and robbery were Christopher Pashley and Kimberly Pashley-Johns, both among a group of seven people arrested In Walton for alleged involvement in the local drug trade in December of 2012. From the Daily Star's report:
Undersheriff Craig DuMond said [Dougherty, Gahan and Grizzard] last year invaded the home of two people involved in the local drug trade, tied up the man and the woman and pistol-whipped both of them. At the time, they were clad in black clothing and at least one was wearing a patch stating "DEA" - the initials of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
