A resident living in one of the Galaxy Tower’s 43rd floor penthouse apartments returned home to discover the front door splintered and the apartment ransacked. Down the hall the doors to the other three apartments on the floor had been similarly smashed in.
Police estimated the apartments were robbed of about $50,000 worth of jewelry. Nobody was home at the time of the incident, which took place around noon on Monday, March 9.
Within 24 hours, Guttenberg police had arrested a suspect, Richard Medina, who police say has confessed to the crime, as well as a burglary in Edgewater. According to police, about 90 percent of the jewelry was returned to the owners.
The quick capture was the result of help from the Galaxy security team. Site Supervisor Angie Granda identified a suspect from recorded video footage. That suspect turned out to be Medina, 50, a former Guttenberg resident and [allegedly] a “career criminal,” according to Investigator Joseph Keselica.
Little physical evidence at the scene
“The first thing you do on a burglary, even if you think it’s cold, you go through every apartment to make sure that the person isn’t still inside,” explained Investigator Joseph Torello.
With the help of building security personnel, Guttenberg police not only searched the burglarized apartments, they checked the penthouses in all three towers and cleared the roofs before processing the crime scene.
No fingerprints were apparent from dusting. “We were able to see glove prints on one of the jewelry boxes,” said Torello.
Meanwhile Granda was in the building’s command center reviewing hours of video footage, searching for a potential suspect. Although no video footage was available of the break-in, she did find a likely suspect in footage taken from the elevator.
“All four of them were smashed in pretty good.” – Investigator Joseph Torello
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The suspect was wearing a hat and kept his head down.
Police were quickly contacted and after viewing the footage they extracted two still photographs from the video and put them out in a bulletin to all surrounding law enforcement agencies.
“After I sent it out I got a call within five, 10 minutes saying, ‘Hey, we think we have your guy here,’” said Keselica.
That call came from the Hudson County Probation Department. Keselica responded to their offices in Jersey City, where he found Medina. “He had large amounts of cash on him,” said Keselica.
The suspect also had a hat similar to the one in the video.
A full confession
Upon questioning, Medina allegedly confessed to the robberies of the four penthouses and led police to retrieve the stolen jewelry.
“He [allegedly] pawned off the jewelry and when the jewelry was returned back to me there was actually more pieces of jewelry that didn’t belong to our victims,” said Torello, leading police to surmise that there may have been other crimes. The additional jewelry was taken into evidence and pictures circulated to other local agencies.
“At that point Edgewater police contacted us and advised us that Mr. Medina might be involved in a burglary in their township,” said Sgt. Juan Barrera of the Guttenberg Police. “And Mr. Medina as well [allegedly] confessed to that crime.”
In the Edgewater incident a residence was broken into but the perpetrator was confronted by a female resident and fled.
“The defendant did tell me during his confession that when he first got up to the penthouse he knocked on all four doors first, waited a couple of minutes and nobody answered, and that’s when he started going from one penthouse to the other,” said Torello.
The penthouse doors showed signs of pry marks, possibly from a screwdriver, although Medina [allegedly] told police he didn’t use a tool. “He said he kind of shoved himself into the doors and possibly kicked it,” said Keselica.
“All four of them were smashed in pretty good,” said Torello.
It is still undetermined how the perpetrator got inside the towers. “Our internal investigation is still going on,” said Frank Fittipoldi, director of project services for the Galaxy’s management company, FirstService Residential. “There are three towers and many ways to enter the property.”
Locked up in less than 24 hours
Medina was charged with four counts of burglary, four counts of criminal theft, and one count of theft.
“He grew up in Guttenberg so he is a local,” said Torello.
Medina was previously incarcerated three times for burglary between 1992 and 2003, according to the New Jersey Department of Corrections. He was not under parole supervision at the time of the Galaxy incident. However, he was on probation and just happened to be in the Hudson County probation office at the time the alert went out.
“Apparently he was there for his regular reporting and the officer of record put the two together,” said Lenny Ward, director of the Division of Parole and Community Programs, State Parole Board. “It’s a pretty cool coincidence, but that officer was very astute in seeing this was the M.O. and the photograph of the suspect.”
Investigator Keselica was quick to thank Site Supervisor Granda for her work in identifying the suspect. “Without her help myself and Investigator Torello wouldn’t be able to get anywhere with this burglary. And that is one of the hardest crimes to solve. If there’s no physical evidence we have nothing,” he said.
Thanks to Granda’s assistance and the keen eye of the probation officer, the suspect was arrested at 11:15 a.m. on March 10, less than 24 hours after the crime took place. “I’m amazed,” said Keselica. “I have never in my life gotten a burglary suspect that quick.”
Fittipoldi praised the police for their decisive action on behalf of the 3,000 residents of the Galaxy towers. “There are few things that are more important to residents than the sense of safety and security in their own homes. And that naturally was shaken by events such as this,” he said. “And that was quickly restored by the quick action of the police department.”
Art Schwartz may be reached at arts@hudsonreporter.com.