David S. Ritter dies, presided over Brinks heist trial

David S. Ritter, the former New York judge who presided over the murder trial of radicals charged with killing a Brinks truck guard and two police officers during a 1981 robbery, has died. He was 82.

Ritter’s family says he died Friday at a Newburgh hospice. A cause of death wasn’t given.

The Middletown native was a prosecutor for 10 years in Orange County before becoming a judge in 1981.

In 1983-84, he presided over two trials of five radicals accused of killing a Brinks guard and two Nyack officers in neighboring Rockland County in October 1981.

Four of the defendants were convicted of murder and received sentences of 75 years to life from Ritter. The fifth pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to 20 years to life.

Funeral services are Aug. 11 at a Middletown funeral home.