Man who attacked store clerk, 91, sentenced

A homeless man who punched a 91-year-old cashier in March at an East Northport drugstore was sentenced Tuesday to 2 to 4 years in prison for a string of robberies and larcenies in Suffolk County.

Shaun Collins, 34, had pleaded guilty earlier this year in Suffolk County Court to six counts of third-degree robbery and two counts of fourth-degree grand larceny.

He was arrested in March after prosecutors said he robbed five Rite Aid stores, a Sears hardware store and a Michael's crafts store. In a separate incident, he stole a car from outside a 7-Eleven store, prosecutors said.

During one robbery, on March 11, Collins punched Flo Critelli, 91, a cashier at an East Northport Rite Aid, and knocked her to the floor before taking money from the cash register, prosecutors said. The attack was captured on security video.

Critelli became the subject of extensive media attention when she refused medical attention and finished her shift following the robbery.

Collins, a former military medic who was profiled in a 2008 Newsday story about heroin users, was sentenced earlier this year in Nassau County to 11/2 to 3 years in prison after pleading guilty to third-degree attempted robbery.

Nassau prosecutors said he robbed stores in Hicksville and Bellmore.

In the Newsday story, Collins described committing petty robberies to support a $200- to $300-a-day drug habit. At the time, he was in prison on a 2007 grand larceny conviction and said he was sober.

Suffolk and Nassau prosecutors said Collins typically purchased candy at drugstores to get cashiers to open up cash registers, then knocked down the cashiers to steal money from the registers.