Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Father-son robbery team to spend a combined 44 years in prison (Cleveland, Ohio)

So EVERY kid needs a father? Even this son, who will be spending 13 1/2 years in prison thanks to the fine example set by dad JOSEPH HUBER? Gee, never thought of a string of violent robberies as a possible father-son bonding activity.

It seems that Dad spent most of Junior's childhood in prison. Of course, lazy people will blame Junior's criminal activity on a "fatherless home." But Junior had a father all right. A father who was a vicious criminal and poor example. Too bad Dad didn't just stay out of the picture after he got out of the joint. The problem here wasn't an "absent" father: It was a "bad" father who should have been absent. Permanently.

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/12/west_side_father-son_robbery_t.html

West Side father-son robbery team will spend a combined 44 years in prison
By Donna J. Miller, Plain Dealer reporter
December 08, 2009, 8:45AM

UPDATED at 11 a.m.:

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Joseph Huber, 40, was sentenced to 31 years in prison for a string of violent robberies on the West Side committed with his son, who got 13½ years.

Assistant Prosecutor Saleh Awadallah said good police work got Huber and his 18-year-old son, Austin "AJ" Teter, off the streets, ending their crime spree.

The crimes began Feb. 23, when Huber and Teter broke into an 87-year-old man's home on West 22nd Street. Wearing masks, they jabbed the World War II veteran (Battle of the Bulge, Normandy Invasion) in the back with a knife, while demanding his car keys and wallet.

About 12:20 a.m. Feb. 27, Huber, Teter and 19-year-old Derrick Jones, of Maple Heights, kidnapped and robbed a pizza deliveryman.

Teter held a knife to the man's throat and forced him back into his car. Huber and Jones got in and forced the victim to take off his clothes. They pull money from his pockets. Fearing he will be killed once they have the money, the pizza man offers to get more money from an ATM.

They drive through Newburgh Heights to a bank, force the man to put on his clothes and take him to the ATM, where he withdraws $260. They get back into the car and the man is forced to undress again.

"How much money did your dad get?” Jones asks Teter.

The trio keeps the man's ID and threatens to harm his family if he calls police, then they push him out of the car and down a hill. The man picks up two pieces of cardboard to cover himself and enters Cleats bar, where two off-duty police officers help him.

Jones was sentenced to three years in prison. Teter got four years.

Feb. 28, Huber and Teter forced their way into a car parked at the Rite-Aid store on Broadview Road and began driving away, while pushing out the 17-year-old who was waiting for his mother.
Teter, now 19, was sentenced to 9½ years for the home invasion and carjacking, after pleading guilty to aggravated burglary, aggravated robbery and theft.

Teter also robbed a Marathon gas station in the 5300 block of Broadview Road March 9. He shot a clerk with a BB gun. He was sentenced to three years, to be served while he serves the other four.

Teter has his mother's maiden name; Huber spent most of Teter's childhood in prison.

Now that the case is closed, prosecutor Awadallah describes the investigation conducted by 2nd District Detective Dale Moran:

The first step was identifying the suspects. The pizza deliveryman told Moran that one suspect said, "How much money did your dad get?"

Moran canvassed the neighborhood where the crimes happened and described the father and son suspects. Residents told him that a father and son had been causing trouble in the neighborhood. He learned their names were Huber and Teter.

He put together a photo line-up and several victims said they were the robbers.

He then interviewed Huber and did a "masterful job in getting Huber to rat out his own son," Awadallah said. Huber tries to shift the blame to his son.

"Moran just lets him talk and dig his hole deeper and deeper. In one part of the interview, Huber laments the fact that Teter twice used Huber's mother's good knives to commit the crimes."

"Without Detective Moran's efforts in identifying Huber and Teter, I am of the firm belief that someone would have been killed during their increasingly violent offenses," Awadallah said.

Huber's life of crime began here in 1990 with vandalism. He then amassed 17 more cases in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court. He was sentenced to six years in prison for kidnapping and felonious assault in 2001.

Soon after his release, he was arrested for drug possession and placed on probation, time he spent committing the armed robberies.