Two men were convicted in a brazen armed robbery at Aqueduct Racetrack that netted more than $284,000, authorities said.
A Brooklyn jury found Queens residents Lafayette Morrison and Lamel Miller, both 39, each guilty of robbery and weapons charges and face seven years to life in prison for the March 2020 crime.
The robbery took place around 10 p.m. after Gotham Day stakes races at the Queens racetrick, while more than $284,000 in cash prizes were being moved to a vault. During the theft, Miller and another man emerged from a stairwell and held up several employees at gunpoint.
Among the staff was Morrison, who had been working as a security guard at the tracks and had informed his co-conspirators when the money was being moved, authorities said. The pair fled to a hotel, where they divided the cash.
“Today’s verdict proves once again that it is a losing bet to commit a violent crime and think that you will outrun the law,” Breon Peace, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in a statement.
