Poughkeepsie man gets 20 years for armed Route 9W gas station robbery

A Poughkeepsie man who fired a pistol inside a Town of Newburgh gas station, threatened a cashier and stole $1,400 from the register was sentenced Thursday to 20 years in state prison, after Orange County prosecutors said his history of gun-point robberies made the case a clear public-safety threat.

Hans Altidor, 56, was sentenced in Orange County Court to 20 years behind bars followed by five years of post-release supervision after pleading guilty on Feb. 4 to robbery in the first degree. Prosecutors said the sentence matched what had been expected at the plea, and reflected both the violence of the crime and Altidor’s criminal record.

The robbery happened at about 2:09 a.m. on July 22, 2025, at the Sunoco station at 5004 Route 9W in the Town of Newburgh. Prosecutors said Altidor entered wearing a mask and holding a pistol, pointed the gun at the cashier, fired one round past the clerk into a wall, moved behind the counter and took $1,400 before fleeing. The cashier was left at the center of the night-shift crime that unfolded in a neighborhood gas station serving drivers along one of Orange County’s busiest corridors.

Investigators later identified the vehicle Altidor used, and prosecutors said he eventually admitted to police that he committed the robbery. A judicially authorized search warrant at his residence recovered the gun, the clothing used in the robbery and the stolen cash wrapped in a latex glove, physical evidence prosecutors said tied him directly to the crime. At the plea proceeding, Altidor admitted that he forcibly stole property and, during the crime or immediate flight, displayed what appeared to be a pistol.

Orange County prosecutors said Altidor had two prior convictions for gun-point robberies, which they used to describe him as a violent recidivist. Town of Newburgh police initially charged him with first-degree robbery, first-degree reckless endangerment and first-degree criminal use of a firearm, among other offenses in the case referenced as NB-02108-25. David M. Hoovler’s office and the prosecutor’s team thanked the Town of Newburgh Police Department and the New York State Police, saying the outcome showed how careful investigation and follow-through can turn an armed robbery into a long prison term for a repeat violent offender.