Woodbridge Steakhouse Robbery Suspect Found After 15 Years

WOODBRIDGE, NJ — The FBI finally tracked down a Trinidadian man wanted for 15 years in connection with the 2009 gunpoint robbery of a Woodbridge steakhouse where $150,000 was stolen, and workers were menaced.

FBI agents arrested 51-year-old suspect Kofi Edwards in Sacramento, Ca., where he was living under a fake name. He was taken into custody on July 9th, and US Attorney Philip Sellinger announced Edward had been brought back to New Jersey to face the music.

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The US Attorney's Office alleges that Edwards, from Trinidad–Tobago, is the prime suspect in a violent armed robbery at Chris Michael’s Steakhouse , on Oakwood Avenue in Woodbridge on St. Patrick’s Day 2009, putting him on the FBI’s “Most Wanted” list, with a $10,000 reward offered for his arrest.

Federal authorities allege that Ewards and another man burst into Michael’s Steakhouse, brandishing guns, threatening and zip-tying three employees before they fled with $150,000, Sellinger’s prepared statement explained.

Three other people were already convicted and sentenced to prison as co-conspirators in the steakhouse robbery, authorities said.

Edwards was indicted in 2014 for conspiracy to commit an armed Hobbs Act robbery, one count of Hobbs Act robbery, and one count of brandishing a firearm to commit a violent crime.

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Edwards pleaded not guilty during a July 29 federal court arraignment in Newark before Judge Leda Dunn Wettre, and Edwards was ordered to remain in a federal lockup until trial.

Edwards faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on the counts of conspiracy to commit Hobbs Act robbery and Hobbs Act robbery, Sellinger’s statement says.

On the count of brandishing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, Edwards faces a mandatory minimum prison sentence of seven years – which must run consecutively to any other sentence Edwards receives – and a maximum potential penalty of life in prison. Each count also carries a fine of up to $250,000, or twice the gain or loss from each offense, according to Sellinger.

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