STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — A long prison stint tops the list for a New Brighton felon accused of injuring a victim with a shopping cart during a mugging last year.
Joseph Carter, 29, has been sentenced to 10 to 12 years behind bars stemming from the episode, as well as an unrelated prior assault.
According to an indictment, the defendant and an unnamed accomplice mugged a woman on April 21, 2021.
The pair snatched the victim’s cell phone and injured her with a “dangerous instrument,” namely, a shopping cart, during the heist, said the indictment.
The indictment did not state the incident location or provide further details.
Carter remained a large for four days before being busted on April 25.
Prosecutors’ court papers said he was driving a 2003 Infiniti at about 12:15 a.m. when he blew through stop signs at two Mariners Harbor intersections — Harbor Road and Brabant Street, and Brabant and Union Avenue.
Officers attempted to pull over Carter at Walloon Street and DeHart Avenue.
However, he bolted from the car and hopped a fence around the corner on Maple Parkway, allege prosecutors’ court documents.
As the defendant did so, officers spotted a shiny metal object fall to the ground, prosecutors allege.
Cops quickly nabbed Carter.
Afterward, they found a silver, .25-caliber Titan semiautomatic handgun at the place when they had seen the object drop, said prosecutors’ court filings.
The weapon was loaded.
Further investigation revealed the defendant’s driver’s license had been suspended 11 times.
“I ran because I don’t have a license,” prosecutors’ court papers quote him as telling cops.
Carter was charged with robbery, assault, criminal weapon possession, criminal firearm possession and aggravated unlicensed vehicle operation.
He resolved those charges last month by pleading guilty in state Supreme Court, St. George, to attempted first-degree robbery.
In exchange, he was sentenced on Monday to eight years in prison.
The defendant had also pleaded guilty to attempted second-degree assault to satisfy charges arising from an unrelated incident on Sept. 18, 2020, show online state court records.
Carter received two to four years for attempted assault.
The sentences will run consecutively, meaning the defendant will serve a minimum of 10 years in prison up to a maximum of 12 years.
Besides prison time, Carter was sentenced to five years’ post-release supervision.
Defense lawyer Matthew Zuntag has declined comment on the cases.
Assistant District Attorney Travis Atkinson prosecuted the cases.
Carter has previously spent time upstate.
In 2015, he was sentenced to three years in prison, plus 18 months’ post-release supervision, for attempted robbery, said prosecutors.
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