FREEHOLD – An Old Bridge man was sentenced to seven years in a New Jersey state prison for a bank robbery last October.  This brings closure to the October 28, 2015 robbery of the Hazlet Plaza branch of Santander Bank, announced Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni.

Stephen A. Fedorka, 3rd, 34, of the Laurence Harbor section of Old Bridge Township, was sentenced by Monmouth County Superior Court Judge Joseph W. Oxley on a lone charge of first degree Robbery.  Fedorka is subject to the provisions of the “No Early Release Act” (NERA) requiring him to serve 85 percent of his sentence before becoming eligible for release on parole. Fedorka was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $4,075.94, and will also be under parole supervision for an additional five years following his release from prison. Judge Oxley also ordered Fedorka to have no contact with his victim and he is barred from returning to the Hazlet Plaza Santander Bank.

Fedorka pleaded guilty in May, admitting that on October 28, 2015 he entered the Santander Bank in Hazlet Plaza on Route 36, handed a note to a bank teller indicating he had a handgun and demanding she put all the money from her cashier’s drawers in a bag he handed to her. After receiving the bag containing cash from the teller, Fedorka fled the bank and ended up at his girlfriend’s residence. Fedorka then stole his girlfriend’s car and fled. He was apprehended on November 1, 2015 after returning to his girlfriend’s residence to retrieve some personal items.

The case was prosecuted by Monmouth County Assistant Prosecutor Margaret Koping.

Fedorka is represented by Michael Wicke, Esq., of Freehold.

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