Hate motivated assault case in Conn. is still pending, Has to pay $8.9 Million to victim in related civil case
LATHAM — A man who used a vehicle to threaten Home Depot employees after they tried to stop him from stealing merchandise has been sentenced to eight years in state prison, Albany County District Attorney Lee C. Kindlon announced Wednesday, Sept. 3.
Other charges for a separate hate crime assault in Conn. were put on hold while the Latham case was adjudicated.
Philip Sarner, 44, received the sentence from Judge Andra Ackerman in Albany County Court, which also includes five years of post-release supervision. A jury had found Sarner guilty in February of one count of robbery in the first degree while threatening the use of a dangerous instrument and one count of criminal mischief in the fourth degree.
On Sept. 21, 2023, surveillance video showed Sarner acting suspiciously as he took Milwaukee power tools from shelves at the Home Depot in the Latham Farms shopping mall on Troy-Schenectady Road. He loaded the tools into a black Husky contractor’s bag and headed toward an emergency exit…