Tired of ads? Subscribers enjoy a distraction-free reading experience.
Click here to subscribe today or Login.

WILKES-BARRE — A Wyoming man who robbed a cashier at gunpoint before leading police on a foot chase through a Luzerne neighborhood last fall was sentenced Tuesday to up to 23 months in county prison.

Michael D. Losito, 32, of Moosic Street, raised a large black replica revolver and pointed it at Chuck’s Newsstand clerk Raj Patel on Oct. 22, 2015, demanding cash. He was caught after a brief chase by police who established a perimeter near Vaughn and Walnut streets in the borough. Losito had $225 on him, police said.

“I’m lucky he didn’t shoot me,” Patel, 47, said the day of the robbery, as he reviewed the video for a Times Leader reporter and photographer in the back room of the store on Main Street in Luzerne.

It showed him on a cordless phone when Losito, wearing a hooded top and brandishing the revolver, burst into the store.

The clerk narrated the silent video: As Losito orders him to open the register, “I say OK,” Patel said. The footage shows him lifting the tray, pulling a wad of bills from underneath and handing it over.

The video shows a customer walk into the fray as Losito is scooping up the money. He points the gun at the customer and walks out of view. He was caught by police near Sly and Miller streets. Police later recovered the weapon, a .375-caliber air gun.

Luzerne County Judge David W. Lupas sentenced Losito to 10 to 20 months in the Luzerne County Correctional Facility on one count each of robbery and simple assault.

The judge also sentenced Losito to one to three months in prison on charges he robbed Dollar General in Wyoming after he had been using heroin all day.

Losito told police he and his roommate, Robert Benussi, were both “extremely high” and decided to rob the store so they wouldn’t be “dope sick,” according to arrest papers. They told police they used a fake gun in the robbery, but said they didn’t threaten anyone with it.

He gave the cash to Benussi to buy more drugs, arrest papers say.

The store’s manager gave a different account.

She told police she watched from an aisle in the rear of the store as Losito pointed the gun at a cashier and counted backwards from five, saying he’d shoot the cashier if he didn’t get the money, arrest papers say.

Benussi, 25, of Kingston, is awaiting trial in the matter.

Losito was given credit for 301 days of time served. He was remanded to the county prison following sentencing.

Kingston and Luzerne police take Michael D. Losito into custody at on Oct. 21, 2015 at the intersection of Sly and Miller streets after he robbed a newsstand on Main Street in Luzerne. Losito was sentenced Tuesday to up to 23 months in county prison on the charges.
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/web1_web1_TTL102115robbery2crop.jpg.optimal.jpgKingston and Luzerne police take Michael D. Losito into custody at on Oct. 21, 2015 at the intersection of Sly and Miller streets after he robbed a newsstand on Main Street in Luzerne. Losito was sentenced Tuesday to up to 23 months in county prison on the charges. Aimee Dilger | Times Leader file

By Joe Dolinsky

[email protected]

Reach Joe Dolinsky at 570-991-6110 or on Twitter @JoeDolinskyTL