Ricardo Horne, Armed Robbery, Virginia 2022

RICHMOND, Va. – In a shocking turn of events, a Richmond man was sentenced to 12 years in prison for his role in two brazen armed robberies in Richmond, Virginia, in 2022.

Ricardo Horne, 41, and his accomplices, Michael Brown, 40, and Rashanda Booker, 38, both from Richmond, targeted a Family Dollar store on April 17, 2022, and a Dollar General store on April 28, 2022. The two armed robberies resulted in the theft of approximately $10,000 from the Family Dollar and an unknown amount from the Dollar General.

According to court documents, Horne and Brown forced a Family Dollar employee to open the safe, while Booker waited outside. Brown, who was wielding a semiautomatic pistol, held the employee at gunpoint while Horne stood watch and maintained control over a customer and another terrified employee. The trio made off with the stolen cash, which they used to buy high-end shoes at a local boutique.

But their spree didn’t end there. Between the two robberies, Horne and Brown directed Booker to purchase a new pistol for the second heist. On April 22, 2022, Booker bought a Taurus, Model G3C, 9mm, semiautomatic pistol, which Brown used during the Dollar General robbery six days later.

On April 28, 2022, Horne and Brown entered the Dollar General store, with Brown carrying the newly purchased pistol. They grabbed control of an employee and forced her to find the manager, who could open the safe. Brown held the manager at gunpoint while Horne maintained control of the other employee. Several customers, including a woman and her young son, were shopping in the store at the time of the robbery.

A GPS tracker was installed in some of the stolen money, which led law enforcement to Booker’s car. Brown and Horne were found to be in the car, wearing different clothing. Law enforcement recovered the stolen cash, the pistol used in the Dollar General robbery, and a Family Dollar bag.

Ricardo Horne’s sentencing comes after a lengthy investigation by the FBI’s Richmond Field Office, the Richmond Police Department, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. Senior U.S. District Judge John A. Gibney handed down the sentence, while Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kenneth R. Simon, Jr. and Jessica Wright prosecuted the case.

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