Springs Man Pleads Guilty To Kidnapping, Armed Robbery

A Springs man pleaded guilty in state court on Friday, March 26, to charges of kidnapping, armed robbery and grand larceny after he abducted and robbed a local woman brandishing what she believed to be a gun last year.

Jay Rowe, 48, spent two months in jail after his arrest last March before posting a $600,000 partially secured bond in May 2021. He will be sentenced to nine and a half years in state prison on kidnapping and robbery charges when he returns to court on May 19. In addition, he will be sentenced to one to three years on the grand larceny charge, though all three sentences are to run concurrently.

He has also been ordered to surrender the $3,045 he was in possession of when he was arrested. The victim obtained a permanent stay-away order of protection.

District Attorney Ray Tierney’s prosecutors had asked for a 12-year sentence on each of the first two felony charges, both classified as violent felonies.

State Supreme Court Justice Richard Ambro told Rowe that if he were to be arrested again between now and his sentencing date, he would face a much harsher sentence.

Before Rowe entered his guilty pleas, the prosecuting attorney, Maria Troulakis, walked him through the elements of the crimes he committed. This is done, particularly in violent felony cases, to put on the record what exactly the defendant is admitting to have done.

Troulakis was the same prosecutor who handled Rowe’s arraignment almost exactly one year ago, on March 29, 2021.

According to the prosecutor, at around midday on March 8, 2021, Rowe began following the 38-year-old female victim after spotting her at the Bank of America on Newtown Lane in East Hampton Village. He followed her from the bank to Stop & Shop, as well as to Advance Auto Parts on King Street, and, finally, to the parking lot at Springs School, where the kidnapping occurred.

Rowe and his wife have school-age children. It does not appear that the woman, whose name is being withheld from publication, knew Rowe at all.

At about 2:30 that afternoon, Rowe approached the victim’s car in the parking lot from the passenger side, opened the door, got in and pointed what appeared to be a gun at her stomach, telling the woman to drive where he told her.

“He forced her to drive while the gun was still at her stomach for a little over a quarter mile down a secluded road. When he told her to stop, he kept the gun on her, demanding that she give him the money. He found over $8,000 in the front center console,” Troulakis had said during Rowe’s arraignment last year.

Troulakis repeated the same narrative of the crimes on Friday, almost verbatim. Rowe admitted to all details of Troulakis’s narrative — save one.

That one detail was the use of the word “gun.” When Troulakis said that Rowe, after finding the money, then pointed the gun at the victim’s head, he called her a liar. On Friday, Troulakis withdrew her use of the word “gun,” making it clear that it appeared to be a gun.

At that point, Troulakis said, the woman pulled out her cellphone and hit 911. Rowe grabbed the phone away from her and ran off with it and the cash.

Rowe’s attorney, Colin Astarita, pointed out after Friday’s court session that there never was a gun charge brought against Rowe. However, Astarita said, the law is clear: If a victim believes that a perpetrator has a gun during a robbery, that constitutes armed robbery.

The case against Rowe was built by the East Hampton Town Police, Troulakis said last year, by examining the plethora of video images of Rowe, starting at the bank and following his every step from there.

The victim had described him as wearing camouflage clothing, making him rather easy to spot in public settings.

This is not the first time Rowe has been convicted of a crime. In fact, his rap sheet is 27 pages long, including 10 misdemeanor convictions, Troulakis said last year, as well as a 2006 violent felony conviction.

After the robbery, Rowe went to Massachusetts. However, Astarita has previously pointed out, Rowe and his office remained in constant contact with the East Hampton Town Police during the days following the robbery, and his surrender was voluntary.

After pleading guilty, Rowe was required to go to the third floor of the building to the probation department, as part of its pre-sentencing investigation. After that, Rowe left the Cromarty Court Complex with Astarita at his side.