New Haven Man Pleads To Armed Robberies, Including East Haven: Feds

NEW HAVEN, CT —A 20-year-old from New Haven pleaded guilty to a number of 2022 convenience store "gunpoint robberies" that were committed in East Haven, West Haven, North Haven and Ansonia, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.

Christian Borrero also pleaded guilty to an armed carjacking in West Haven, according to U.S. Attorney for Connecticut Vanessa Roberts Avery.

According to Avery, court documents and statements made in court, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) and New Haven police investigated a series of late June and early July 2022 gunpoint robberies.

Prosecutors said the probe revealed Borrero committed:

• Armed robbery of a Citgo Gas Station, 957 Foxon Road in East Haven, on June 29, 2022.
• Armed carjacking followed by an armed robbery of a 7-Eleven Convenience Store, 1089 Campbell Avenue in West Haven, on July 3, 2022.
• An armed robbery on an Xpress Mart Gas Station, 180 Wakelee Avenue in Ansonia, on July 7, 2022.
• Borrero and "his associate, Robert Smith," committed an armed robbery of a Shell Gas Station, 195 State Street in North Haven on July 6, 2022.

Borrero pleaded guilty to two counts of carrying, using, and brandishing a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence, Avery said. The charge has a mandatory consecutive prison term of at least seven years on each count, prosecutors noted.

A sentencing date is not scheduled.

In September 2023, Smith, also of New Haven, pleaded guilty to one count of aiding and abetting Hobbs Act robbery and one count of aiding and abetting the carrying, using, and brandishing a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence, Avery said. He also awaits sentencing

Borrero has been detained since July 13, 2022, and Smith has been detained since Jan. 3, 2023.

The case was investigated by the ATF with the assistance of the New Haven, East Haven, West Haven, Ansonia, and North Haven police departments.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Nathaniel J. Gentile.

In a news release, Avery thanked the State’s Attorneys for the Judicial Districts of New Haven and Ansonia/Milford for their cooperation in investigating and prosecuting this case.

The prosecution is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods, the "centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s violent crime reduction efforts."