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Mugshot of Daniel Galiano from 1997.Advance\/SILive.com file<\/p>\nSTATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 A Staten Island man serving a life sentence in New Jersey for a spree of armed robberies in the 1990\u2019s has been released from prison after having his sentence commuted.<\/p>\n
Daniel Galiano, who committed a string of armed robberies on Staten Island and in New Jersey in 1997, was among a group of 51 prisoners who had their sentences commuted by former New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy on his last day in office.<\/p>\n
Commutations allow for sentences to be reduced or shortened, but do not eliminate the criminal conviction or seal the record. Commutations differ from pardons, which erase the conviction and restore civil rights like voting and holding office.<\/p>\n
Galiano had been serving life in prison due to New Jersey\u2019s \u201cThree-Strikes\u201d statute, which mandates a life sentence for those convicted a third time of certain violent crimes like armed robbery.<\/p>\n
He allegedly targeted at least 10 Staten Island stores during a roughly one-month span in early 1997, including grocery stores, pharmacies and other retail businesses in New Dorp, Grant City, Great Kills, Oakwood and Dongan Hills, according to previous reporting from the Advance\/SILive.com.<\/p>\n
He earned the nickname \u201cthe hooded bandit,\u201d as police noted that he always wore a hooded sweatshirt or jacket tied closely to his face during the robberies.<\/p>\n
Mugshot of Daniel Galiano from 1997.Advance\/SILive.com file<\/p>\n
Police officers at the time said Galiano would threaten store employees with a knife or gun, and either demand money or walk behind the counter and grab the cash himself.<\/p>\n
Galiano initially fled to Florida when news broke that police were looking for him in relation to the robberies, but soon after he surrendered to Florida police and was extradited back to New York to stand trial.<\/p>\n
Investigators credited the Advance\/SILive.com\u2019s reporting with playing a crucial role in bringing an end to Galiano\u2019s robbing spree.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe knew he was wanted and it was due to the efforts of his family and the public \u2014 as a result of an Advance article \u2014 that he called police and surrendered,\u201d said Sgt. John Pszczola, who served as commanding officer of the Island\u2019s Robbery Squad at the time.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe article generated many phone calls from the public. That lit the fuse. There was a full-court press on him from every police unit on the Island,\u201d Pszczola added.<\/p>\n
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Daniel Galiano being put into a squad car at the 120 Precinct stationhouse in 1997.Advance\/SILive.com<\/p>\n
Galiano pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree robbery and was sentenced to 13 years in prison and confined to the Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Ossining, New York.<\/p>\n
However, Galiano was still facing various charges for other armed robberies he had committed in New Jersey around the same time and was transferred into the neighboring state\u2019s custody to stand trial.<\/p>\n
Galiano was sentenced to mandatory life in prison without parole under the state\u2019s \u201cThree-Strikes\u201d statute.<\/p>\n
John Esposito, of the law firm Aidala, Bertuna and Kamins, filed the motion for the commutation on a pro bono basis and won Galiano his freedom. He was released from East Jersey State Prison, formerly known as Rahway Prison, on Jan. 30.<\/p>\n
\u201cDanny Galiano was 27 years old when he was convicted of a robbery in Monmouth County 1997. Galiano had committed other robberies during a 30-day spree as he was in the throes of drug addiction. Despite the fact that no weapon was ever discharged, and no physical injuries sustained, Galiano was sentenced, pursuant to the draconian \u2018three strikes law\u2019 to a life sentence without the possibility of ever being released or paroled,\u201d a spokesperson for the law firm said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 A Staten Island man serving a life sentence in New Jersey for a spree…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135990,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-135989","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-staten-island","12":"tag-staten-island-headlines","13":"tag-staten-island-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}