Saugerties bank robber freed from prison
One of three people involved in a robbery spree that ended with a heist at Sawyer Savings Bank in Saugerties in April 2012 was released from state prison Wednesday morning, according the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision.
John B. Streb, 33, of the city of Rochester, was released from prison Wednesday, his earliest possible release date, after serving two-thirds of his maximum sentence of 3.5 to seven years in state prison, department spokesman Patrick Bailey said.
Streb, who is expected to settle in the Rochester area after his release, will be subject to post-release supervision until April 11, 2023, Bailey said.
Streb pleaded guilty to felony robbery and attempted robbery on Nov. 21, 2012, for the Saugerties heist on April 10 of that year. He was sentenced on Feb. 5, 2013.
Streb was denied parole in March 2016. The parole board cited his criminal history, his “prior unlawful conduct” and “tickets for misbehavior” he received at the Cayuga Correctional Facility in Moravia, N.Y.
Streb’s criminal history includes felony convictions for robbery, possession of stolen property, attempted grand larceny and grand larceny.
Streb was one of three suspects arrested the day of the Saugerties robbery. They were taken into custody at the town of Ulster rest area on the southbound Thruway.
Also arrested were Amanda Muhs, of Albany, and Ryan Novick, of the city of Rochester.
Muhs, who pleaded guilty in September 2012 and agreed to testify against her codefendants, said in court that the Saugerties bank was the third that she, Novick and Streb robbed after leaving Rochester days earlier.
Muhs said she, Novick, Streb and four other people left Rochester on April 8, 2012. The next day, she said, the group robbed a bank in Herkimer County and another in Columbia County. She said three of the other four left the group following the second bank robbery and that the fourth did not participate in the Saugerties heist.
In detailing for the court the events surrounding the Saugerties robbery, Muhs said she, Novick and Streb went to a CVS store to buy an envelope that would be used in the heist and that Novick drove to a spot near the bank, at 87 Market St., and parked the getaway vehicle. Streb left the vehicle and, a few minutes later, came running back with the envelope filled with cash, Muhs said.
She said the three then fled to the rest area on the Thruway, where they were caught.
Muhs was sentenced to six months in the Ulster County Jail and five years of probation in exchange for her testimony.
Novick, now 37, was said to be the ringleader of a gang that robbed seven banks across the state. He was convicted by an Ulster County Court jury on Nov. 15, 2012, of robbery and grand larceny, both felonies.
Novick, who was sentenced to 3.5 to seven years in state prison, was paroled in 2017, according to the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision website. But he’s back behind bars until at least March of 2019, serving a two-to-six-year sentence for a 2017 felony assault conviction in the Rochester area.