A Baltimore jury convicted Donte Antwaun Herring, 36, of Washington, D.C., of robbing two phone stores in Maryland in December 2020.
Herring was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison followed by three years of supervised release on Monday, August 19, 2024, by U.S. District Judge Matthew J. Maddox.
The robberies occurred on December 17 and 23, 2020, at phone stores in Halethorpe and Owings Mills, Maryland, respectively.
In each robbery, Herring and his co-conspirators used firearms to threaten the victims and steal thousands of dollars’ worth of electronic devices and cash.
According to trial testimony, on December 17, 2020, Herring and a co-conspirator entered a phone store in the 3900 block of Washington Boulevard, in Halethorpe, Maryland.
After initially posing as customers browsing for cell phones, the co-conspirator and Herring announced a robbery and brandished firearms, pointing them in the direction of the victim employee.
Witnesses testified that in the robbery on December 23, 2020, co-defendant Rico Dashiell entered a telephone store in the 10000 block of Reisterstown Road in Owings Mills, Maryland and acted like a customer.
Herring and another co-conspirator then entered the store brandishing firearms and Dashiell pointed a gun at a victim employee.
Herring and the co-conspirator pointed their guns at a victim customer and other employees and ordered them to get down on the floor.
Herring and the co-conspirator took the victim’s wallet, containing his driver’s license and credit cards, along with his car keys and an Apple iPhone 8S plus, valued at approximately $350.
Herring and the co-conspirator went to the back room and Dashiell escorted a victim employee to the back room at gunpoint and ordered the victim to open the store safe.
According to trial testimony, Herring and the co-conspirator removed nearly all of the electronic devices from the safe, including Apple and Samsung Galaxy devices (76 devices total), and placed them in large garbage bags they had brought with them.
Herring and the co-conspirator then ordered the three victims from the main floor of the store to the room in the back of the store where the safe was kept.
As Herring and the co-conspirator left the room, the co-conspirator pepper sprayed the victims’ faces.
In the meantime, Dashiell directed a victim employee to open the store’s cash register and stole $322.
Herring and his co-conspirators then fled in a vehicle that had been stolen earlier in the day and that had tags stolen from another vehicle.
According to trial evidence, law enforcement was able to track the vehicle to a home in Catonsville, Maryland, where aviation units were able to film Herring, Dashiell and the co-conspirator unloading the stolen merchandise from the car and taking it into the residence.
As detailed in trial testimony, law enforcement officers arrived at the residence and attempted for hours to make contact with the suspects and other occupants of the residence.
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Key Facts
- State: Maryland
- Category: Violent Crime
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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