Photo by Síle Moloney
Matthew Podolsky, acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced Kelly’s sentence, which he said was imposed by U.S. District Judge Gregory H. Woods. The judge also presided over a four-day trial after which Kelly was convicted of two counts of Hobbs Act robbery and one count of brandishing a firearm in connection with one of the robberies.
“James Kelly terrorized workers at local delis in the Bronx by threatening to shoot them, pointing a gun at them, and robbing them at their workplace,” Podolsky said. “As today’s sentence shows, violent offenders who commit these heinous crimes will face harsh penalties. We thank our law enforcement partners for their determination in holding those who commit violent crimes, like Kelly, accountable and for their tireless pursuit of justice for victims.”
According to court filings, on Oct. 10, 2021, Kelly entered a deli in The Bronx with his hands in his pocket, purporting to have a gun. The court heard that Kelly approached a deli employee working alone in the store, threatened to shoot him, and demanded cash.
Prosecutors said after the deli employee gave Kelly cash, Kelly ordered the deli employee to get down on the ground and said that if the employee moved, he would “shoot the shit” out of the employee. They said 15 months later, on Jan. 15, 2023, Kelly robbed another deli in The Bronx, pointed a gun at two deli employees, again demanded cash and threatened to shoot them, and again ordered them to get on the ground.
In addition to the prison term, Kelly of The Bronx was sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $1,900 and forfeit $1,900.
Podolsky praised the outstanding investigative work of the NYPD’s Bronx Violent Crimes Squad and the investigators of the office. This case is being supervised by the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Southern District of New York’s General Crimes Unit. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Connie L. Dang, Adam Z. Margulies, Georgia V. Kostopoulos, Katherine Cheng, and David R. Felton are in charge of the prosecution, with the assistance of Paralegal Specialist Olivia Sebade.
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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to [email protected] or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.