16-Year-Old to be Charged as Adult in Robbery

A 16-year-old boy from Bethlehem is being charged as an adult for the mugging of a woman on a SouthSide street earlier this month.

Anthony Berliner of 825 Atlantic St. for the January 8 robbery. But in a juvenile court hearing on Monday, Berliner was ordered to stand trial as an adult, according to court records. He is now being held in Northampton County Prison in lieu of $100,000 bail.

Berliner is accused of holding a pellet gun to Marie Capasso’s head and stealing her purse. According to court records, Berliner approached Capasso from behind as she walked north on Taylor Street from E. Sixth to E. Fifth streets. “Give me your purse and I won’t kill you,” he allegedly told her.

In addition to closely resembling “a real gun,” the pellet gun is powered by a compressed air cylinder, shoots pellets at a high velocity and is capable of causing serious bodily injury, according to the arrest affidavit. The gun “can be interpreted as a firearm” under the Pennsylvania Crimes Code, the warrant said.

The purse contained $32, prescription medicines, two wallets and identification cards, court records say.

Berliner was chased down shortly after the mugging by Police, which were on a plainclothes robbery detail in the neighborhood. University police spotted the suspect jumping a fence at a property on the 400 block of E. Fifth Street.

He was ultimately caught in the 600 block of E. Fifth Street, shortly after throwing the purse over a fence and dropping the pellet gun, according to the arrest warrant.

Berliner was arraigned Monday before on charges of robbery, theft, receiving stolen property, terroristic threats and possessing the instruments of a crime.