East Bridgewater Man Pleads Guilty to Charges From Failed Stoughton Gas Station Robbery

STOUGHTON, MA — An East Bridgewater man charged in a failed gas station robbery has admitted to the charges against him.

Thomas Tibbetts, 23, pleaded guilty last week in Norfolk Superior Court to assault with a dangerous weapon, assault and battery, malicious destruction of property valued over $250, and armed assault with intent to rob with a knife, according to the Norfolk County District Attorney's office. His co-defendant, David Kisor, 32, of Stoughton, pleaded guilty to similar charges on April 7, 2016.

Tibbetts was sentenced to two and a half to three years in a state prison. Assistant District Attorney Kate Nedelman Herbst requested three to four years.

Investigators say Tibbetts was the one armed with a knife when the two approached the attendant at a Getty gas station on Canton Street on Jan. 22, 2015. After falsely telling the attendant that a girlfriend of one of the two men left their purse at the gas station, the two forced their way into the building while the attendant tried to close and lock the door to exclude them.

The men rifled through the pockets of the attendant while Tibbetts brandished the knife, but fled when the worker broke away from them and began hitting buttons on the station’s alarm panel. No money was taken from the station or attendant, the DA's office said.

Kisor was identified as a suspect through surveillance footage viewed by Stoughton Police Detective Erik Feist, who was familiar with Kisor. A DNA test on a cigarette found at the station performed by in the Massachusetts State Police laboratory linked Tibbetts to the crime.