NEWS

Accused Morristown hospital robber’s bail kept at $250,000

Peggy Wright
@PeggyWrightDR

Bail was maintained at $250,000 Tuesday on an Orange resident who authorities say has been linked through DNA to the armed robbery 13 months ago of a parking attendant at Morristown Medical Center.

Tyhan L. Lighty, 43, was apprehended last week and twice was scheduled for bail reviews by a state Superior Court judge in Morristown, but he said he was ill. The bail review finally took place Tuesday via a closed circuit television link between the Morris County Jail in Morris Township and the courtroom of Judge William McGovern in Morristown.

“I didn’t even know what I was here for,” Lighty, who is unemployed, told the judge in response to McGovern’s inquiry on whether he expects to be represented by a public defender.

Morris County Assistant Prosecutor Sahil Kabse asked the judge to maintain bail at $250,000, arguing that Lighty has 10 convictions, including for robbery and drug offenses, and uses five aliases and multiple birthdates.

A probable cause affidavit filed in Superior Court states that Lighty was connected to the May 18, 2014, robbery through DNA left on zip-ties used to bind a female worker and through surveillance camera images.

At 10:53 a.m. on May 18, 2014, police went responded to the medical center on a report that a parking-management company employee was robbed at gunpoint while counting money collected at parking garages at Morristown Medical Center. The amount of money taken has not been revealed.

The attendant was working as an administrative assistant for Gateway Group One, the company that provided parking services at the medical complex. She told police she was counting garage receipts and preparing the payroll for attendants before she took a break and returned to the parking garage front office to find a man standing in the office.

According to the affidavit, the office is locked through a pass-code lock, which requires an individual to enter a code before the door can open. The man asked for a parking permit, and the victim told him that he would have to go inside the medical center to get one. The man left the office, the affidavit said.

A short time later, the same man re-entered the locked front office, but the affidavit does not state how the entry was accomplished. The man demanded the money the worker was counting, ordered her to tie herself up with zip-ties he was carrying and ordered her to undress — all while pointing the handgun at her, according to authorities.

After the robber fled, the zip-ties used by the suspect were submitted to the State Police laboratory for DNA testing. In November, authorities got word from State Police that a search of the Combined DNA Index System maintained by law enforcement showed a match occurred with Tyhan Lighty, the affidavit said.

As a previously convicted felon, Lighty’s DNA was on file in the CODIS database. He is charged with first-degree robbery, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, unlawful possession of a weapon and being a certain person not permitted to have weapons because of a prior conviction.

Kabse, the assistant prosecutor, told the judge that Lighty’s criminal history makes him eligible for an extended prison sentence if he is convicted of the robbery.

Staff Writer Peggy Wright: 973-267-1142; pwright@GannettNJ.com.