The man arrested in a Jericho gas station murder from January has been arraigned and held without bail.
Joshua Golson-Orelus, 23, of Westbury, was arrested Wednesday morning in Utica and is charged with first-degree murder and robbery.
Police say Golson-Orelus is the man they hunted for months for the murder of Jericho gas station attendant Hany Awad. He is also their suspect in 12 other gas station holdups in the last six months, including the most recent one early Sunday morning at a Citgo on Union Avenue in Westbury.
The recent holdup turned out to yield a break in the case. Police say right after the robbery, a nearby officer saw Golson-Orelus driving erratically and wrote down his license plate number.
Sources tell News 12 that a tracking device in the form of a GPS chip had been slipped in with the money given to Golson-Orelus. Police would not comment specifically on that claim.
The 23-year-old was arrested Wednesday morning at a relative's house in upstate Utica.
"We deployed thousands of man hours during this effort in a collaborative, multi-agency law enforcement approach, and deployed the most sophisticated technology available to law enforcement," says Acting Police Commissioner Thomas Krumpter.
Golson-Orelus faces life in prison without parole if found guilty.