Armed robbers facing time in prison
By From staff reports
Published in News on August 29, 2012 1:46 PM
Five Wayne County men Tuesday were sentenced in federal district court in Raleigh for their roles in a string of armed robberies in early 2010.
Anthony David Brown, 24, Derrick Dove Jr., 22, Ivory Javaughntae Harris, 21, and Malcolm Jamal Artis, 22, all of Goldsboro, and Antonio Deonte Jones, 27, of Pikeville were sentenced by Chief United States District Judge James C. Dever III for conspiring to commit Hobbs Act robbery affecting interstate or foreign commerce and use of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence.
Brown was sentenced to 216 months imprisonment; Dove was sentenced to 84 months; Harris was sentenced to 90 months; Artis was sentenced to 96 months; and Jones was sentenced to 114 months.
The sentences will be followed by five years of supervised probation.
According to an indictment that was returned on Sept. 28, 2011, from Jan. 25 to April 14, 2010, the men committed a series of robberies in Wayne and Wilson counties.
The robberies targeted convenience stores, and a firearm was used in each robbery.
According to the investigation, the same method was used in each robbery -- the defendants entered the store fully disguised, one defendant brandishing a handgun while the others seized the cash drawer from the register and/or cash from the safe, and then the robbers would flee in a car driven by a co-conspirator.
This case was part of the Project Safe Neighborhoods initiative, which encourages federal, state and local agencies to cooperate in a unified "team effort" against gun crime, targeting repeat offenders who continually plague their communities.
Investigation of the case was conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the Goldsboro Police Department; the Wayne County Sheriff's Office; the Wilson Police Department; and the Pikeville Police Department.
Assistant United States Attorney Ethan Ontjes was the prosecutor for the government.