Brady Indicted For First Degree Robbery

Melinda Brady pled not guilty at her Riverhead arraignment on Tuesday to a charge of robbery in the first degree related to her alleged involvement in the and shooting at Haven Drugs in Medford on Father’s Day, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office.

Brady was charged Monday on a grand jury indictment.

District Attorney Thomas Spota said that Brady knew her husband, David Laffer, planned to rob the store, drove him from the scene and assisted in setting up what they hoped would be an alibi.

“We cannot prove she knew David Laffer was armed with a deadly weapon,” Spota said. “She told detectives she did not know her husband, inside his knapsack, carried the gun to the pharmacy.”

Brady, formerly of Sayville, was ordered held without bail by Judge James Judson. The charge of robbery in the first degree carries a prison term of up to 25 years, the DA’s office said.

Brady pled not guilty in June to charges of robbery and obstructing of governmental administration, but prosecutors said at the time that the charges were likely to be upgraded.

Laffer, Brady's husband, is with five counts of first degree murder, one for each of the four killed during the robbery and an additional charge for mass murder. Each of the charges can carry punishment of life in prison without parole. He also faces multiple counts of criminal use of a firearm in the first degree.