Erie County District Attorney John J. Flynn announces that 40-year-old Robert Wasyl of North Tonawanda has been sentenced by Erie County Court Judge James Bargnesi to 12 years to life in prison. The defendant was sentenced as a persistent violent felony offender.

The defendant admitted to attempting to burglarize the rectory at St. Timothy’s Church on East Park Drive in the Town of Tonawanda on September 11, 2017. The victim, a priest who resides in the rectory, awoke to a man inside his bedroom. The defendant stole money and a watch before fleeing.

Wasyl, who was convicted of burglarizing the same church rectory ten years earlier, pleaded guilty to one count of Attempted Burglary in the Second Degree in October 2018.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys Brian D. Langenfeld and Danielle E. Phillips of the DA’s Felony Trials Bureau.