A Bronx man who pleaded guilty to a 2009 knifepoint home invasion burglary in the Town of Greenburgh has been sentenced to 8 ½ years in state prison.
Victor Hernandez, 27, of 1070 Fox St., was one of three attackers who forced their way into a home and tied of a husband and wife. The men stole cash, jewelry, a television and a computer.
However, Westchester County District Attorney Janet DiFiore said it was the stolen laptop computer that became the key in the investigation and led to Hernandez's arrest. An investigation by Greenburgh Police and the Organized Crime and Criminal Enterprise Bureau of the DA's office found the computer in the Bronx nearly two years after the crime.
The victims' son, an information technology manager, had installed software on the laptop that allowed him to remotely access the computer whenever it was powered up. DiFiore said it turned out that Hernandez had given the computer to his girlfriend, who did not know it was stolen and continued to use the computer.
Photos that were remotely downloaded from the computer included photos of Hernandez, who DiFiore said was identified in April 2011. That led Greenburgh police to the computer in the Bronx, and the discovery that Hernandez was in prison in Michigan on an unrelated burglary charge.
After the 2009 burglary in Greenburgh and his indictment in 2012, Hernandez was also jailed in Indiana for burglary. Hernandez was deported in September 2011 but returned to the U.S. illegally in December 2011, when authorities picked him up again.
Hernandez was brought back to New York from Michigan in May 2012 and he pleaded guilty to the Greenburgh attack on Nov. 27, 2012. When he's completed with his prison time in New York, he's due to be turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.
The other two men involved with the Greenburgh home invasion were not identified.
