Suspect faces trial in Huntington home invasion

Opening arguments were scheduled to begin Tuesday afternoon in Suffolk County Court in the burglary trial of a Yonkers man who prosecutors said was part of a gang that robbed a Huntington couple last year in a violent home invasion.

Prosecutors said the gang gained entry to the couple's home by posing as insurance sales agents and telling the couple they had information on President Barack Obama's health care plan. The suspects took $4,000 in cash, prosecutors said.

Three members of the group have pleaded guilty in connection with the Aug. 29, 2009, burglary.

Vance Jackson, 47, is to go on trial Tuesday for his role in the burglary. Jackson has pleaded not guilty to multiple counts of robbery, burglary, assault and weapons possession. He is being held without bail in Suffolk County jail.

Prosecutors said Jackson hid outside the victims' home until other members of the gang got inside. Jackson then burst into the home, shot a man in the neck, shot the man's girlfriend in front of her 2-year-old daughter and pistol-whipped the woman's mother, prosecutors said.

The victims survived the attack.

Prosecutors said two members of the gang - Benjamin Thompson, 32, of Brooklyn, and Natalie Desir, 28, of Nyack - wore stethoscopes, carried clipboards and claimed to be insurance agents to get inside the victims' house.

A fourth man, Theodore Briggs, 40, of the Bronx, drove a getaway car, prosecutors said.

Thompson and Jackson hatched the home invasion plan while waiting to meet with their parole officers in the Bronx, Assistant District Attorney Glenn Kurtzrock said at their arraignment last year.

Thompson pleaded guilty Aug. 31 to first-degree attempted robbery and is awaiting sentencing. He is held in jail without bail.

Desir and Briggs each pleaded guilty in February to second-degree attempted burglary and second-degree attempted robbery. They are awaiting sentencing. Each is being held on $250,000 bail.

Prosecutors say additional suspects are being sought and an investigation into the burglary is continuing.