DA: Jury convicts man in bank robberies

A Lindenhurst man was convicted Wednesday of robbing three banks and trying to rob a fourth one, the Suffolk County district attorney's office said.

Steven A. Sebastopoli, 54, faces up to 15 years in prison after a jury convicted him of three counts of third-degree robbery and one count of third-degree attempted robbery, District Attorney Thomas Spota said. He's due to be sentenced on May 24.

Sebastopoli, of 721 S. Fourth St., was arrested April 12 last year shortly after he handed a note demanding money to a teller at the TD Bank on Montauk Highway in West Babylon, police said. He took off in a car with the cash, police said.

He was convicted of that robbery and two others last year: at the Chase Bank on Sunrise Highway in West Babylon March 3 and the Apple Bank on East Sunrise Highway in North Lindenhurst March 25. The jury also found him guilty of the attempted robbery of the Polish Slavic Federal Credit Union on Great Neck Road in Copiague April 7 last year, prosecutors said.