Brooklyn man sentenced in Center Moriches home invasion

A state Supreme Court justice sentenced a Brooklyn man to 25 years in prison Wednesday in a 2016 armed burglary of a Center Moriches home, the Suffolk district attorney’s office said.

Alexander Vaughn, 30, and two co-conspirators used duct tape to restrain three occupants of the home, one of whom was 14 years old, and they threatened them with a gun and baseball bats, the office said.

“Our homes are supposed to be the places where we feel most safe, but that feeling was stripped away from the victims when the three defendants terrorized and stole from them in their own house,” District Attorney Timothy D. Sini said in a news release.

A jury convicted Vaughn of first-degree burglary June 12 and Suffolk County acting Supreme Court Justice Mark Cohen handed down the maximum sentence Wednesday — 25 years in prison with 5 years of post-release supervision.

The two other defendants in the case have already been sentenced.

A jury convicted Bidi George, 21, of Brooklyn, of first-degree burglary Nov. 2, and Cohen also sentenced him to the maximum on May 3.

Akim Adams, 27, of Brooklyn, pleaded guilty to first-degree burglary on May 17. Cohen sentenced him to 17 years in prison and 5 years of post-release supervision June 18.

In the burglary, which took place at about 10:10 p.m. Nov. 16, 2016, Vaughn, carrying a handgun, and George and Adams, carrying baseball bats, entered the Center Moriches house through an unlocked garage, the district attorney’s office said.

The trio bound three occupants of the home to chairs and gagged them with duct tape, the office said.

Three children between the ages of 9 and 12 were also at the home and two them hid in the attic during the burglary.

The items Vaughn, George and Adams stole included jewelry, cash and a cellphone, the district attorney’s office said.

Police apprehended the trio at about 11:22 p.m. in a 2016 Hyundai sedan, driven by Vaughn, on the Southern State Parkway in Bay Shore. They had several of the items stolen from the residence, the district attorney’s office said.