By Ivan Pereira
Looks likethe runway spotlight and the gossip pages were not enough for a South Ozone Park high-fashion model, who was arrested last week for allegedly taking part in 15 robberies in Queens and Brooklyn, the Queens district attorney said.
Joshua Walter, 20, who works as a model for the German-based Hugo Boss clothing company, was arraigned Saturday in Queens Criminal Court along with three other men on several counts of armed robbery charges, according to the DA. Walter, held on $100,000 bail, according to the DA’s office, made headlines last year when his Ozone Park teacher lost her job after city Department of Education officials discovered the two were having an affair.
“I got nothing to say,” the suspected robber told the New York Post from his jail cell.
Walter; Lamont Adams, 33, of Sixth Street in Long Island City; Willie Winston, 30, of Long Island City; and James Young, 29, of Brooklyn, are accused of robbing 15 stores from June 4 to July 12, police said. During most of the robberies, which took place in convenience stores in Astoria, Forest Hills and Corona, the four men would allegedly enter with guns and sometimes bandannas and camouflage paint and demand money from tellers, according to the criminal complaints.
The latest robbery took place early in the morning of July 12, at a Dunkin’ Donuts at 99th Street and the Horace Harding Expressway. Walter, allegedly nicknamed “Whitehead” by his accomplices, stole an undetermined amount of cash and other products, according to the DA’s office.
Walter and his group were arrested last Thursday by the police, who stopped their Chevrolet Astro van near 30th Avenue and 31st Street in Astoria, the criminal complaint said. During the stop, Adams ran out and tried to escape from one of the officers, but was captured less than a block away, according to the complaint.
Officers found a semi-automatic pistol inside the van, the DA said. If convicted of their charges, Walter and his alleged accomplices could face at minimum up to 25 years in prison a spokeswoman for the DA’s office said.
A representative for Hugo Boss did not return calls for comment, but the model told the New York Post he is still strutting down runways.
“I still am modeling,” he said.
Walter made headlines in the fall when his former girlfriend and teacher, Gina Salamino, 37 was fired from her job at PS 121 in Ozone Park. In November, Salamino, sued the Department of Education over the termination, claiming even though she met Walter when he was 12, they began their sexual relationship when he was 17 and out of school due to his modeling career. At the time the law suit was filed, the two were living together, according to the New York Post.
In May, Walter pleaded guilty to a felony assault charge for hitting Salamino and was given a conditional discharge by a Queens judge, the DA’s office said. A Manhattan judge dismissed the lawsuit three weeks ago, according to court documents.
Reach reporter Ivan Pereira by e-mail at ipereira@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 146.
