Brian Briggs, a 33-year-old Albany man, was handed a 24-year prison term on Monday, the Albany County District Attorney’s office said.
Briggs robbed a maintenance worker at gunpoint in an Albany public housing building in May 2025, authorities said. It was his second robbery conviction, following a previous incident in July 2013.
An eventful May 12, 2025, for Briggs began around 2:15 a.m. when cops responded to a trespassing report at the Townsend Park apartments on Central Avenue, police said at the time.
When officers confronted Briggs, he punched one and put another in a chokehold before he was eventually subdued and arrested, according to the Albany Police Department. But Briggs was released afterward, then cops encountered him again around 2:30 p.m. at the same address for reports of an armed robbery.
A maintenance worker told cops he heard a man, later identified as Briggs, arguing with his mother and intervened to help calm the dispute, investigators said. But Briggs was angered by the intervention, pulled a handgun, and demanded the worker empty his pockets, prosecutors said.
Briggs stole the man’s phone, keys, and lanyard but was arrested again shortly afterward — and that time remained locked up, authorities said.
At trial, Briggs represented himself and blamed the morning arrest for the afternoon case, according to the district attorney’s office. The jury didn’t buy it and convicted Briggs in February on first-degree robbery and second-degree weapons possession charges.
Briggs’ prior conviction, for second-degree robbery, stemmed from another hold-up inside an Albany garage, according to reports from 2014.
“Here’s the problem, you’ve shown a history of hyper aggressive activity,” Judge Thomas Marcelle told Briggs on Monday. “The interaction prior to the robbery was very scary. And the victim tried to calm you down. He showed kindness, almost supernatural peace.”
Click here to follow Daily Voice and receive free news updates.
