Alleged Serial Robber Denied Bail Reduction

Accused serial robber James Paul Taormina remains in jail on $300,000 after a Superior Court judge declined to reduce his bail during a hearing Friday.

Taormina, 30, who has been charged in five different robberies in Gloucester and Camden counties, including two in Gloucester Township, has confessed to three of the incidents and been positively identified by a TD Bank employee in another. He has yet to be charged in one of the Camden County robberies, at a 7-Eleven in Cherry Hill.

Assistant Gloucester County Prosecutor Laurie Cimino cited the identification and confessions as reasons to keep the bail where it currently stands, given the evidence against Taormina.

“The state believes the proofs are significant,” she told Superior Court Judge M. Christine Allen-Jackson.

Taormina, who has no permanent address, but has previously lived in Atco and Turnersville, allegedly went on a two-week robbery spree, hitting several convenience stores in multiple towns, as well as the TD Bank on Route 42 in Washington Township.

His alleged armed robbery spree kicked off at the Church Street 7-Eleven in Blackwood Feb. 9.

After robbing the TD Bank on Route 42 in Washington Township Feb. 10, police said Taormina robbed the 7-Eleven on Evesham Road in Gloucester Township's Glendora section that same night before robbing a 7-Eleven in Cherry Hill and , Feb. 12.

Police said Taormina then made two unsuccessful robbery attempts at the CVS in Glassboro and a Dunkin' Donuts in Washington Township, before in West Deptford Sunday, Feb. 19.

In almost every case, Taormina, in a gray hoodie and a ballcap, robbed cashiers at knifepoint, though in one of the West Deptford robberies, he threatened a clerk with a hammer, instead. At the TD Bank robbery, Taormina passed a note to a bank employee, demanding cash.

Officers from the Gloucester County Prosecutor's Office and the U.S. Marshal's fugitive units just days after that last robbery, following an investigation by , Gloucester Township and Washington Township police.