Amber Belade, 23, will be going to prison for mugging a 91-year-old Derby woman and committing a string a burglaries with her boyfriend.
Just how much time she’ll do remains to be seen.
Belade, a Derby resident at the time of her arrest, has 27 criminal charges pending against her.
She is accused of planning or participating in burglaries and larcenies in Ansonia, Derby, Fairfield and Shelton.
The most egregious of her crimes, however, happened May 3.
That’s when Belade ran up to 91-year-old Francis Falcioni on Chatfield Street in Derby, grabbed her purse and knocked Falcioni to the ground.
Belade — an aspiring beauty queen, according to her Facebook account — got away with just $40 in cash.
Falcioni suffered cuts and several strained muscles. She had to walk with a cane for more than a month, her family told the Valley Indy.
Police believe many of Belade’s crimes were committed with her boyfriend, Collin McCarthy, 44. The two were trying to fuel their mutual drug addictions. Belade was addicted to heroin, Shelton police said.
Belade appeared in court in Derby on Monday (Dec. 19), where she entered guilty pleas to eight of the criminal charges — including the mugging.
In a plea agreement worked out between her attorney, Joseph Jaumann, and prosecutors, Belade faces a range of possible jail time.
The maximum she’ll serve — 15 years in prison, with the sentence suspended after she serves eight years. She would then be on probation for five years.
The least she’ll serve — 15 years in prison, with the sentence suspended after she does six years in jail. She would then be on probation for five years.
Her fate will be decided March 15, when Judge Burton Kaplan will listen to arguments from the state and Belade’s attorney.
The judge will also have access to a pre-sentence investigation report, a document prepared by the state’s Department of Probation that analyzes defendants and recommends how much time they should do, if any.
Belade is scheduled to appear at 10 a.m. She has been held in the York Correctional Institution in Niantic since June 27.
McCarthy, her alleged co-defendant, is next due in court Jan. 17.
