Sachem Patch's Top Crime Stories of 2011

1. : A Holbrook man was sentencted this year to 50 years in prison for raping a Holtsville woman in 2009. John Kluge, 25, was  of first-degree rape, criminal sexual act and burglary for an incident that occurred in the victim's home.

2. : Mary Moran, the grandmother of 33-year-old victim and Farmingville resident Jaime Taccetta, called David Laffer "the devil's boy" as she laced into the stone-faced Laffer inside Suffolk County Criminal Court in Riverhead. Laffer killed four people on Father's Day in Medford at a pharmacy.

3. : A 21-year-old Farmingville man was charged with attempted murder of a police officer, criminal possession of a weapon and cocaine sale charges after he  at an undercover officer in August, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office. Nicholas E. Hansen opened fire on a member of the Suffolk County District Attorney Heroin Task Force, after displaying approximately four ounces of cocaine to an undercover officer, as other officers moved in to arrest him.

4. : Two men plotting to invade an alleged heroin dealer's home in Farmingville were arrested in November, according to Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota. The dealer, a Farmingville man, was also arrested. Lonnie Walker, 29, of Farmingville, was charged with fourth degree possession of a controlled substance (heroin), according to Spota. It was his home that was going to be invaded prior to the arrests of Joshua A. Whitfield, 26, of Huntington and Seyquan Patron, 24, of Mastic Beach. 

5. : A Shirley woman was arrested in Holbrook in October after she was found to be in possession of heroin with her two-month-old child in the backseat of her vehicle, according to police.  Suffolk County Police Officers were preparing to set up surveillance in the parking lot of Toys-R-Us, located at 5801 Sunrise Highway, when they observed Crystal Webberly, 29, in a parked 2004 Hyundai tie a strap around her left arm at 1:20 p.m., police said. 

6. : Holbrook resident Gail Sacher, 62, died in a car accident when the vehicle she was riding in was hit by a car fleeing from the police. Three alleged Tanger Outlet shoplifters who reportedly sped down the Long Island Expressway to Sunrise Highway struck and killed a Holbrook woman in late June.

7. : Two Farmingville women were arrested after they were in possession of stolen property from numerous cars and mailboxes in the Ronkonkoma area, according to Suffolk County Police. Nancy Rodriguez, 26, and Gina Puma, 26, were in possession of numerous items that had been stolen from vehicles and mail boxes in the Ronkonkoma area recently. Officers were able to recover a GPS device, car chargers, cell phones and approximately 100 pieces of mail, including checks, police said.

8. : Two men were arrested in November for burglaries that occurred in Holtsville, Holbrook and Medford during the past three months, according to police. Fifth Squad detectives arrested Brian Firman and Tyler Ciervo after they burglarized two Holtsville homes on Monday, police said. Further investigation revealed that they were responsible for at least eight additional daytime burglaries of homes since September, police said. 

9. : A Holtsville man was arrested and charged with assault after stabbing another man with a broken bottle in October in Farmingville, police said. According to Suffolk County Police, Osualdo Sanchez, of Holtsville, 23, stabbed someone in the neck with a broken bottle during an altercation on North Ocean Avenue in Farmingville Sunday at 6:15 p.m.

10. : A Ronkonkoma man was arrested in August after he attempted to rob a 7-Eleven convenience store in Central Islip Thursday night, police said. Michael Zimmerman, 31, entered the 7-Eleven located on Carleton Avenue armed with a large tree branch at 11:30 p.m., police said.