Two Port Chester Men Face Felony Charges in Mugging

Port Chester detectives had little to go on besides a cartoonish witness description.

After a Port Chester man was , he told police he'd been attacked by an odd couple – a rotund man about five feet tall, and his relatively taller, mustachoied companion. They threatened to kill the man before taking the wallet, cash and a pair of ATM cards.

The witness gave a vague account of their clothing, and told police the suspects had called him "friend" before threatening his life, but couldn't guess at their ages or other details.

Detectives Christopher Krzeminski and Aaron Conetta got a break in the case after reviewing a report from an incident an hour earlier on the same night. A group of people were standing in front of the firehouse at Midland Avenue and Grace Church Street when two men fitting the descriptions of the robbers confronted them.

"Two guys came up to them, and one of them said, 'Should I kill them?'" Lt. James Ladeairous said. "And he pulled out what appeared to be the butt end of a gun."

The man who brandished the gun turned out to be 21-year-old Ivan Valdovinos, but cooler heads prevailed. Manual Barajas, 36, the alleged accomplice, told Valdovinos to leave the group alone, and the two went on their way, eventually mugging the original victim an hour later.

The detectives reviewed tape from a nearby surveillance camera, and footage showed the pair matched the description given by the witness in the Grace Church Street mugging.

The victims identified Barajas and Valdovinos from a photo array, and police caught up with them this week.

Barajas, of 1 West St., and Valdovinos, of 94 Purdy Ave., were eached charged with felony second-degree robbery. In addition, Valdovinos was charged with felony second-degree menacing for brandishing a gun in the incident before the mugging.