The defense challenged the confessions of 44-year-old Mark Maltese to a series of robberies and a burglary in 2013; a jury yesterday found the Batavia resident guilty on all but one count on the indictment against him.
The jury went into deliberations shortly after noon Thursday, returned to the courtroom a couple of times to review video evidence and have transcripts read back, and then returned the verdict at about 4 p.m.
"Obviously, the key to the case is the defendant's confessions," said District Attorney Lawrence Friedman. "That's obviously the most powerful evidence we can have."
Maltese was found guilty of three counts of robbery, one count of third-degree burglary and second-degree criminal mischief and one count of grand larceny, 3rd.
A not guilty verdict was returned on one count of burglary.
The participation of Maltese in a burglary Nov. 27, 2013, of the Rent-A-Center in Batavia led to his arrest and helped investigators crack the case of three hotel robberies in Genesee County in the week prior to the burglary.
In confessions at the time of his arrest, Maltese told police he robbed the hotels because he needed money to buy crack cocaine.
"I have been struggling with a major addiction to crack cocaine for about the past six or eight months," Maltese said. "This addiction has consumed me and the majority of my money goes to buy crack to feed by addiction. My crack use got way out of control and I didn't know how to stop or slow down with smoking it. I became desperate for money so that I could get more crack cocaine, so I turned to robbing places to get the money I needed for crack. Every bit of the proceeds from the three robberies went to buy crack for me to smoke. I was out of control with my addiction and didn't know where to turn."
Friedman said the defense challenged whether the confession was truly voluntary as well as some of the facts contained in the confession.
Maltese was also convicted of stealing a safe from a local residence, but he was not convicted of the burglary charge in that case.
Maltese faces up to 15 years in prison on each robbery count. Sentencing is set for March 4.
