An indictment was unsealed Tuesday charging Melinda Brady with first-degree robbery in connection with the pharmacy massacre that claimed four lives and stunned Long Island last month, prosecutors said.
She will not face murder charges in the quadruple killings on Father's Day.
Police say Brady, a known pain pill addict and the wife of accused killer David Laffer, was the getaway driver in the shootings. Prosecutors say the pair hatched a plan to rob a Medford, N.Y. pharmacy of painkillers; Laffer is also accused of gunning down four people inside.
Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota said Tuesday that Brady could not be charged with murder because she was not aware her husband had a gun when he went into the pharmacy.
Brady has been held on $750,000 bail since she and her husband were arrested last month; she had already been charged with third-degree robbery and obstruction of justice, and a grand jury indictment unsealed Tuesday upgraded those charges.
First-degree robbery carries a maximum penalty of 25 years; the third-degree maximum was seven years.
Brady pleaded not guilty at her arraignment in Riverhead on Tuesday. She is being represented by Legal Aid, which typically does not comment.
Laffer has already been indicted on first-degree murder charges and has pleaded not guilty.
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Spota said the families of the victims were "disappointed" that Brady is not being charged with murder. None of the families who came to court wanted to comment Tuesday.
Spota said investigators have recovered more than 1,000 pills stolen from the pharmacy; he said Laffer and Brady had hidden them at the bottom of a blender box in their kitchen cabinet. He said authorities also have surveillance video of Laffer disposing of the backpack and clothing he wore in the shooting.
