Bronx Pawn Shop Stick Up Resulted In 84 Months now VOSR for No Reentry or Restitution

Bronx Pawn Shop Stick Up Resulted In 84 Months now VOSR for No Reentry or Restitution By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon SDNY COURTHOUSE, Oct 13 – Lenny Oquendo pled guilty to an armed stick up of a Bronx pawn shop before U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York then Magistrate Judge James L. Cott on May 31, 2019.     Judge Cott noted that while the robbery was on 1 September 2018, the plea agreement was dated 20 March 2018, then (half) corrected to 20 May, still 2018.    Assistant US Attorney Kyle A. Wirshba genially apologized. In the underlying complaint, Oquendo was described as tying the pawn shop victim up with duct tape and making off with $2 million in jewels. That is crossed out and, handwritten in, $200,000.  The victim in fact recognized Oquendo as having used the pawn shop for two years.  On March 24, 2019 AUSA Wirshba wrote to the assigned District Judge Paul G. Gardephe with a stated mandatory minimum of 84 months in prison, to apologize for having "inadvertently failed to request that Mr. Oquendo be produced for Monday's conference." On December 3, 2019, Oquendo was sentenced to 84 months and five years of supervised release. Jump cut to September 24, 2025 when Oquendo was back in SDNY Mag Court, on an alleged violation of supervised release. Inner City Press was again there.  It emerged that after being arrested by Yonkers PD for shoplifting, Oquendo did 30 days then was released - and immediately taken in to Federal custody on the VOSR. Probation wondered where he would be living.  The Federal Defender, standing in, mentioned a sister in The Bronx and a brother in Middletown.  Probation mentioned someone else in Middletown; the phone with numbers could not be found.  Judge Cave ordered him detained pending a Friday September 26 at 2 pm hearing. Thwas was pushed back several times until it resulted in a stated sentence of 89 days. On October 13, 2026 Inner City press was back in the SDNY Mag court when Oquendo was brought in and read two specification, failure to report to a residential reentry facility, and not acting on restitution. He was detained on consent and was set to see Judge Gardephe on October 22.  The case is USA v. Lenny Oquendo, 1:18-cr-790 (Gardephe / Cave) *** Feedback: Editorial [at] innercitypress.com Box 130222 NY NY 10013 Other, earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.  Copyright 2006-2026 Inner City Press, Inc. To request reprint or other permission, e-contact Editorial [at] innercitypress.com for