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“It’s called accomplice liability,” Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Kenneth Ralph said.
Perhaps Adrian Hicken “had the most important job of all” in the more than $1 million robbery of Hartgers Jewelers, Ralph added.
Hicken’s three Brooklyn accomplices “were relying on him to get them away when they were done,” he said. “He was a full and willing participant in that plan. When it didn’t work, he did everything he physically could to get away from the police.”
Defense attorney Diane D’Alessandro suggested that Hicken, of Effort, PA, had no idea what his friends were up to when they held up Hartgers in April 2011.
“What Mr. Ralph told you is what he thinks,” she told jurors, “but you have to have proof beyond reasonable doubt — not maybe he knew, proof. And he not only had to know: He had to have some kind of stake in the outcome.”
The other three apparently put the masks and gloves they used in the robbery by the store door, D’Alessandro noted. Hicken, meanwhile, sat in his car, listening to music, “and didn’t see them,” she said.
Ralph showed the jurors surveillance video from the store as he described the robbery — which he said took less than 10 minutes in all — and the subsequent chase.
One of them went in first, then thwarted co-owner Gregg Hartger’s attempt to lock the entry deadbolt, letting in the others, he said. All were wearing heavy coats, gloves, caps and masks.
The crew smashed glass cases with a long-handled sledgehammer, shoved two customers to the floor, and dragged Hartgers across the room when he tried to get to a phone, Ralph said.
After throwing 86 high-end Rolex watches and 27 rings into two pillowcases, they ran out and got into a maroon Chevy Tahoe with Delaware plates, which Hicken had parked rear-end in, the assistant prosecutor said.
The truck headed down Route 208, leading to what briefly became a high-speed police chase.
One of the robbers jumped out at the corner of Franklin Avenue and Ewing Avenue in Franklin Lakes and was quickly grabbed by Wyckoff Sgt. Jack McEwan and Franklin Lakes Police Officer Rich Osenbruck.
Meanwhile, officers from Ridgewood, Hawthorne and Franklin Lakes joined in.
With speeds getting dangerously high, police opted for a stakeout coordinated by Patrol Sgt. Glenn Ender on Goffle Road in Wyckoff, near the border of both Hawthorne and Ridgewood.
There, Hicken crashed the Tahoe into a patrol car driven by Hawthorne Officer Joe Carr.
He then turned down dead-ended Coe Avenue and, realizing his mistake, pulled into the parking lot of a Goffle Road shopping center.
Hawthorne Sgt. Mark Michalski pulled his cruiser in front of the truck, but Hicken rammed it nearly head-on with the Tahoe.
All three robbers bailed out but were quickly grabbed.
Ralph said Hicken, at well over 300 pounds, wasn’t about to run. Instead, he tried to walk away — but Ridgewood Police Officer Patrick Elwood climbed a ridge overlooking the neighborhood, spotted Hicken and arrested him, the assistant prosecutor told jurors.
Hicken’s driving was “putting people in all kinds of danger, rocking side to side, trying to get away,” Ralph said. “He didn’t stop. He drove until he could drive no further — and even then, he kept going.
“His actions demonstrate everything you need to know about that day, that he was a full and willing participant in these crimes.”
Hartgers later testified that he was dragged across the floor, “6-feet-2 and about 180 pounds, like a rag, like nothing.”
Hicken rejected a plea offer of 15 years in state prison last Friday, choosing to take his chances at trial.
However, as Superior Court Judge Patrick J. Roma warned, he could face 50 years if convicted of all charges.
Hicken’s three accomplices — Andre C. Lewis and Darren Ellis of Brooklyn and Maurice J. Highland — are scheduled to be sentenced June 7 after each pleading guilty to armed robbery and resisting arrest.
Hyland and Lewis agreed to sentences of 14 years, with no parole eligibility for nearly 12. Ellis took 12 years, with no parole eligibility for more than 10.
Hicken’s trial resumes Tuesday.
STORY / PHOTO: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter
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