Pair arrested in early-morning home invasion fled in taxi cab, arrested in Riverside: police

Two Riverhead men are facing felony robbery and burglary charges after a home invasion early Sunday morning.

Tremel Kelly, 20, and Howard Ferebee, 28, forcibly entered a Horton Avenue home at about 4 a.m. this morning and removed a 32-inch television, according to Riverhead Town Police. Following a physical altercation with an occupant of the home in the driveway, the pair fled in a taxicab driven by Ferebee.

Patrol officers located the cab, a Hampton Town Taxi, a short time later on Flanders Road in Riverside. Ferebee attempted to leave the area and was stopped by police on Riverleigh Avenue, where he was taken into custody, police said. Kelly, the passenger in the taxi, fled on foot. He was located a short time later, with the assistance of a K9 unit, hiding in a hotel room at the Budget Host Inn in Riverside, according to police. He was taken into custody without incident, police said.

Police said they recovered proceeds of the burglary within the taxi.

Kelly was charged with second-degree burglary, second-degree robbery and criminal mischief in the third degree, police said. Ferebee is also facing second-degree burlgary and second-degree robbery charges, as well as a charge of criminal facilitation in the fourth degree.

The occupants of the home, a man and his elderly mother, were asleep in their bedrooms at the time of the burglary, police said. Neither was harmed in the attack.

“We’re just very glad that they got them,” victim William White said this morning. “The police are going to handle it,” he said. “I’m just very shocked that he would target me and my mom like that.” White said he did not know the alleged robbers.

Both Kelly and Ferebee have prior convictions, according to court records.

Kelly was arrested for grand larceny of an automobile last year after an April 3 manhunt that involved Riverhead and Southampton Town police, state troopers and a Suffolk County Police helicopter. He was apprehended after a brief foot chase in Millbrook Gables, after an officer spotted him near his former residence, which had been abandoned and boarded up.
At the time of the incident, Kelly also had an outstanding Riverhead Justice Court bench warrant for his arrest, in connection with his failure to appear in January 2012 on prior charges of petit larceny and criminal possession of a controlled substance.

Kelly was also one of 23 people indicted in February 2011 on a slew of drug, weapons and counterfeiting charges after a months-long investigation by the East End Drug Task Force. Kelly was charged in the indictment with criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree. At a news conference about the arrests, Suffolk District Attorney Thomas Spota accused Kelly of being a member of the Bloods street gang.

Photo captions, from top: 1. The mobile home on Horton Avenue where police say two men broke in and stole a television this morning.  RiverheadLOCAL photo by Peter Blasl 2. 2011 mug shot of Tremel Kelly, provided by the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office.

Editor’s note: A criminal charge is an accusation. By law, a person charged with a crime is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

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