UPDATED June 21, 4:30 p.m.
A Brooklyn man was ordered on Tuesday to spend the next dozen years in the slammer after pleading guilty to his role in a brutal Bayside home invasion more than three years ago.
Vincente Barzola, 41, was one of two men who knocked on the door of a senior couple’s apartment on 15th Avenue on the afternoon of April 23, 2014. When the 85-year-old woman answered it, prosecutors said, Barzola allegedly told her that he and his partner — Christopher Ramirez, 27 — were part of the building’s maintenance crew, and that they needed her signature on a form.
Barzola and Ramirez barged into the home as the woman unlocked the door, according to Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown. They proceeded to tie her up with plastic ties and did the same to her then-87-year-old husband, who was sleeping in an upstairs bedroom at the time. Officers said they awoke the man and pepper-sprayed him.
Law enforcement sources said Barzola and Ramirez ransacked the apartment, removing a safe containing more than $15,000 in cash along with gold and diamond jewelry.
Both seniors were treated for their injuries at a local hospital.
“The victims in this case — both octogenarians — weren’t just robbed of their precious possessions. The defendant also stole their sense of security that they were safe in their own home,” Brown said in a statement.
Barzola, who was arrested in January of 2015, pleaded guilty on May 30 of this year to a first-degree burglary charge; he’s was sentenced on June 20 to serve 12 years in prison and 2 1/2 years’ post-release supervision.
Ramirez previously pleaded guilty to first-degree burglary and is awaiting sentencing.
