Published: April 10, 2008 10:44 pm      

Staple Gun Bandit receives sentence

Rocchi gets 10 years

CATLETTSBURG — The Staple Gun Bandit is going to prison for at least 81/2 years.

Gerald A. Rocchi, 32, who pleaded guilty in March to robbing an ice cream parlor and a fast-food restaurant with a chrome-plated, pistol-grip stapler that employees of those establishments thought was a firearm, was sentenced Wednesday in Boyd Circuit Court.

Judge Marc I. Rosen sentenced Rocchi to two 10-year prison terms, with the sentences to run concurrently, on two counts of first-degree robbery.

Because robbery is classified as a violent offense, Rocchi will have to serve at least 85 percent, or 81/2 years, of his sentence before he is eligible to meet with the parole board.

The staple gun Rocchi used in the holdups qualifies, under Kentucky law, as a dangerous instrument because he told the victims it was a gun.

Boyd Commonwealth’s Attorney David Justice called Rocchi “a disturbed young man who desperately needs drug counseling,” and requested he be placed in an institution where he can receive substance abuse treatment. Rosen agreed to note that request in the judgment of conviction.

Rocchi robbed The Ice Cream Shoppe, near the Midtown Mall, on Nov. 13. Employees told police he told the clerk he was armed and pressed the stapler into her back.

Rocchi fled the store with $195 from the register, ducked into the nearby Ponderosa Steakhouse and changed clothes in the restroom. Witnesses told police the direction he’d gone, and police arrested Rocchi at his house on 10th Street, behind the shopping center, after a brief standoff.

Police found evidence in Rocchi’s house linking him to an earlier robbery at the Wendy’s restaurant also near the Midtown Mall.

“Good and efficient police work by the Ashland Police Department brought about this arrest and conviction and helped avert a potential tragedy,” Justice said.

Also sentenced Wednesday by Rosen were:

‰Ruth Bentley, 33, of Ashland, to one year on two counts of possession of a controlled substance.

‰Trina Dean, 31, of Fort Gay, to two years for theft.

‰Allen Ray Gifford, 41, of Catlettsburg, to two years for criminal possession of a forged instrument.

‰Ronnie G. Hicks, 52, of Ashland, to six years for trafficking in a controlled substance.

‰Justin J. Adkins, 30, of Ashland, to one year for receiving stolen property.

KENNETH HART can be reached at khart@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2654.