Borrero
NEW HAVEN – A New Haven man has been sentenced in federal court on charges stemming from a robbery spree across Ansonia, New Haven, and other towns.
Christian Borrero, 20, was arrested on July 13, 2022, in connection to four convenience store robberies that had taken place over the last two weeks, as well as two car thefts. On April 1, he was sentenced to 14 years in federal prison on two charges of carrying, using, and brandishing a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence.
According to a sentencing memo from prosecutors, on the evening of June 29, 2022, Borrero entered a Citgo gas station in East Haven along with a minor (who is not named). Borrero held a silver handgun to the cashier while the minor emptied the cash register. They both fled on foot.
Four days later, on July 3, Borrero, the minor, and a third accomplice, Robert Smith, ordered a pizza in New Haven. When the delivery driver arrived, Borrero held up his gun and stole the driver’s car with Smith, while the minor waited nearby in Borrero’s mother’s car, a tan Honda station wagon.
Borrero and the minor drove the two cars over to a 7 – 11 in West Haven, where they robbed the gas station in the same way they had robbed the Citgo. They both fled afterward in the station wagon.
In North Haven three days later, Borrero and the minor robbed a Shell station in North Haven while Smith acted as a lookout. Investigators later that night found the station wagon in North Haven – unoccupied, but with a large amount of cash and a loaded Smith & Wesson magazine and cleaning kit inside.
Around the same time investigators found the car, Borrero was in Meriden, with Smith and the minor. There, Borrero and the minor found a woman sitting in her driveway in a Toyota SUV. They ordered her to get out of the SUV and stole it.
The next night (July 7), Borrero and the minor drove the SUV down to Ansonia, where they used it as a getaway car for their final robbery. At the Xpress Mart on Wakelee Avenue, Borrero once again held his gun up to the cashier while the minor emptied the cash register.
Borrero was arrested on July 13, 2022, after investigators entered his residence using a search warrant and found the gun suspected of being used in the robberies.
Borrero was initially charged with four counts of robbery, one count of carjacking, and two counts of brandishing a weapon during a crime. He was not charged for the theft of the Toyota SUV.
In exchange for a guilty plea on the weapon brandishing charges, the robbery and carjacking charges were dropped. He will receive credit toward his 14-year sentence for time served since his arrest in July 2022.
“This case was not a one-time mistake in a moment of desperation,” the government’s sentencing memo, signed by Assistant United States Attorney Nathaniel J. Gentile, reads. “Borrero engaged in a pattern of premeditated, violent, and dangerous gunpoint robberies. Borrero’s disrespect for the rule of law and the safety of others demands the severe sentence requested to ensure he does not put others in the community at risk again.”
Smith was arrested and charged six months after Borrero, in January 2023. In September, he entered into an agreement under which he pled guilty to a robbery charge and a charge of brandishing a firearm. He faces up to 11 years in prison, according to court documents.
The minor is being prosecuted in state court, according to the sentencing memo.
