Prosecutors Wednesday offered an 82-year-old serial burglar a “deal” of a lifetime — 22 years in prison for eight jewelry heists in exchange for his guilty plea.
Defendant Samuel Sabatino’s lawyer Murray Richman quipped to the court, “If they can guarantee he’ll live that long, he’ll consider it.”
If Sabatino served the full term, he would be released when he’s 104.
The octogenarian defendant pleaded not guilty Wednesday in Manhattan Supreme Court to 15 counts of burglary, grand larceny identity theft, tampering with evidence and other charges.
The deal would have also covered an open 2001 burglary indictment. He jumped bail on that case and has been on the run for nearly two decades, officials said. Justice Gregory Carro ordered Sabatino held without bail.
The elderly perp allegedly struck empty apartments inside posh doorman buildings during holiday weekends.
“The defendant was essentially slipping past doormen, slipping into high-end residential buildings on the Upper East Side,” said Assistant District Attorney Rachel Polisner.
He carried a black bag of burglar tools, which he allegedly used to pick locks. He netted nearly $500,000 worth of jewelry since 2014, authorities said.
Sabatino’s burglary spree came to an end Aug. 31 after he entered the lobby of 153 E. 67th St. — but the doorman wouldn’t let him upstairs. The NYPD was using a GPS device to track Sabatino’s Lexus ES 350, authorities said.
Minutes later, cops pulled him over near the West Side Highway and arrested him. He handed up a fake California license with a Beverly Hills address and the name James Clement.
Back at the 19th Precinct, a detective noticed that a designer watch Sabatino was wearing had vanished from his wrist.
“I wasn’t wearing a watch,” he insisted during questioning. The cop searched for the timepiece and spotted it in the precinct’s toilet.
“Oh, that thing,” Sabatino said when confronted, according to court papers. “Yeah — I guess I do wear it loose. I wear it very loose on my wrist. I guess it must have fell into the toilet.”
For more than two hours, the defendant insisted that his name was James Clement and that he didn’t even know how to spell Sabatino.
After cops contacted his attorney, he fessed up, “Oh, you’re on the phone with my lawyer? Okay, yes — my real name is Samuel Sabatino.”