Homeless man indicted in gas station murder near Baldwin border

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The man charged with killing beloved South Hempstead gas station manager Cemal Dagdeviren is back in Nassau County and on Tuesday was arraigned on murder and several other charges. Joshua Roston, a homeless man whose last known address was in Baldwin, was indicted on three counts of murder, three counts of robbery, leaving the scene of a death, possession of a forged instrument and several charges of petit larceny.

Bail was set at $500,000 bond or $250,000 cash. Roston is due back in court on May 9 and faces 25 years to life in prison if convicted of murder.

Det. Lt. Stephen Fitzpatrick, of the Nassau County Police Department’s Homicide Squad said Roston was charged with three counts of murder, despite only allegedly killing one person, because there are multiple ways to kill someone. “And in this particular incident,” Fitzpatrick explained at a press conference, “this conformed into any one of those three categories.”

On Jan. 14, Roston fled to Philadelphia after allegedly running over and killing Dagdeviren over $22 in gas at the Pit Stop in South Hempstead. Dagdeviren tried to stop Roston from leaving the gas station without paying, something he had allegedly done multiple times in the past, the NCPD said. “It was a particularly heinous and depraved way that he ran over Mr. Dagdeviren,” Fitzpatrick said.

Roston turned himself into Philadelphia police once his name and mugshot from a prior arrest were released on television, but fought extradition back to Nassau County for close to three months. Maureen McCormick, of the Nassau County district attorney’s office, said the case would be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

Roston’s charges also stem from prior times he tried to flee gas stations without paying for fuel, and the forged instrument charge relates to one case when he allegedly tried to pay with fake money.

Hundreds of Baldwin, South Hempstead and Rockville Centre residents mourned Dagdeviren after he was run down. He was remembered as a kind man and genuine business owner. “I think it must be a small level of comfort to the Dagdeviren family,” Nassau County Executive Laura Curran, a Baldwinite who lives near the Pit Stop, said, “that the guy who did it is here … and he will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

Dagdeviren’s son Ceyhun stood alongside law enforcement personnel at a press conference, but declined to speak with reporters.