NORTH PLAINFIELD — A Dunellen man and a 17-year-old North Plainfield resident were arrested for robbing a teenage girl and her friend at gunpoint in the parking lot of a North Plainfield condominium complex, authorities said today. Mark Skladany, 19, of Prospect Avenue, and a person identified as J.N. in court papers, were charged with first-degree armed robbery and...
Mark Skladany, 19.NORTH PLAINFIELD — A Dunellen man and a 17-year-old North Plainfield resident were arrested for robbing a teenage girl and her friend at gunpoint in the parking lot of a North Plainfield condominium complex, authorities said today.
Mark Skladany, 19, of Prospect Avenue, and a person identified as J.N. in court papers, were charged with first-degree armed robbery and second-degree conspiracy to commit armed robbery, Acting Somerset County Prosecutor A. Peter DeMarco Jr. said.
Skladany’s bail was set at $150,000 cash or bond. J.N. was remanded to the Middlesex County Youth Detention Center.
At about 9:12 p.m. Monday, North Plainfield police received a call from one of the victims and responded to the parking lot of Regency Village on Route 22, DeMarco said.
Two victims, an 18-year-old male and a 16-year-old girl, said they were sitting in a parked vehicle when two males approached. After a brief conversation, the juvenile assailant brandished a handgun and demanded all of the victims' belongings, DeMarco said.
The robbers took a cell phone, cigarettes and $10, and ran from the area. The victims were able to identify the assailants by their first names and provided a description, DeMarco said.
North Plainfield and Watchung police searched the area and found Skladany in the Walmart parking lot in Watchung. At about 6 a.m. today, police found J.N. at his residence in North Plainfield, DeMarco said.
During the investigation, North Plainfield detectives found the .22-caliber revolver in the area where the robbery occurred.
The investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information is asked to contact North Plainfield police at (908) 769-2937 or the prosecutor’s Major Crimes Squad at (908) 231-7100 or Crime Stoppers of Somerset County at (888) 577-TIPS (8477). Citizens also can go online to www.888577tips.org and click "Give Tips" or www.scpo.net and click "Crime Stoppers."