Valero Armed Robbery Leads to 6-8 Year Prison Sentence

A man who used a knife to rob a clerk at the Valero gas station in 2011 has been sentenced to six-to-eight years in state prison.

Mark Busuito, formerly of 24 Cedar St., pleaded guilty on March 22 to a count of armed robbery while masked in Worcester Superior Court, a spokesman said.

Assistant District Attorney Christopher Hodgens recommended the sentence of six-to-eight years, said Timothy Connolly, a spokesman for the Worcester District Attorney's office. The defense attorney recommended five years to five years and a day in state prison. Superior Judge Janet Kenton-Walker imposed the sentence recommended by Hodgens, Connolly said.

The crime at Valero netted $284.49 and was Busuito's second conviction for armed robbery. He was convicted of a similar crime, also using a knife, in Newton in 2009 and received a three-year sentence, according to Milford Police Detective Jason Ball.

He was on probation for other crimes, including threatening to commit a crime, when he committed the Milford offense, Ball said.

At Valero, while using a hooded sweatshirt to partially obscure his identity.

A search under a court warrant of his apartment on Cedar Street produced "a silver knife and a black hoodie," according to a statement filed in court by Ball. When police arrested Busuito, in Waltham, at the home of a female friend, he was located in a bedroom partly clothed. When the detective asked him where his clothing was, Busuito responded: "I dropped them in a sewer drain after I did it."