News

by Michaelangelo Conte
Friday July 25, 2008, 3:40 PM
Journal file photoTimothy Adams is seen during hearings before he pleaded guilty earlier this month.

A Newark man convicted of holding a Journal Square jeweler hostage in a seven-hour standoff with police was senteznced today to eight years in prison, his punishment tempered by consideration of his psychiatric problems.

"This was a mentally ill individual who was completely out of his mind," defense attorney John Caruso said in appealing for leniency for 31-year-old Timothy Adams.

The prosecution and state Superior Court Judge Barry Sarkisian, sitting in Jersey City, acknowledged Adams has mental problems.

Caruso had planned on presenting a defense based on insanity and diminished capacity, but Adams pleaded guilty just as testimony in his trial was to start.

According to the original charges, on Sept. 21, 2005, Adams and another man entered A&E Jewelry on Sip Avenue at 2 p.m. and one of them trained a gun on store owner Yung Park, 67.

Park's wife ran out the door and the other robber chased and attacked her on the sidewalk, but a passing Secaucus cop and a probation officer saw the struggled and intervened. The second man fled, and has never been caught.

Holding what turned out to be a fake grenade and plastic gun, Adams, meanwhile, forced Yung Park into the basement, which he barricaded.

Caruso said Adams smashed all the lights, duct taped Park to himself and threw a blanket over himself before going into what the police hostage negotiator described as a "totally paranoid rant."

Journal Square was locked down during a massive police response.

Eventually the negotiator successfully distracted Adams, and Park escaped, at which point police arrested Adams.

Before the sentence was handed down, Adams spoke to the court.

"I'm not the same person I was three years ago,'' he said. "I've been learning, going to groups, I've got my family here. So I agree with anything you decide to sentence me to. I know it is up to you and I agree with that."

Adams originally faced up to 30 years in prison on the original charges.

The plea deal allowed Sarkisian to sentence him in the range of five to 10 years.

Adams will have to serve 85 percent of his eight-year sentence before becoming eligible for parole.

The judge has also notified the prison officials to give him any psychiatric treatment he needs.

Adams will get credit for the more than 1,000 days he has spent in jail since his capture

Source: nj.com