CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Chief U.S. District Judge Frank D. Whitney sentenced today Alex Arnez Jones, 27, of Atlanta, Georgia, to 262 months in prison for a string of armed robberies of Charlotte-area businesses, announced Jill Westmoreland Rose, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina. Judge Whitney also ordered Jones to serve three years of supervised release and to pay $6,319 as restitution.
U.S. Attorney Rose is joined in making today’s announcement by John A. Strong, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Charlotte Division, and Chief Kerr Putney of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department.
According to filed court documents and today’s sentencing hearing, between Nov. 17, and Nov. 23, 2015, Jones robbed five Charlotte-area businesses at gunpoint. Court documents show that on Nov. 17, Jones robbed a Boost Mobile store located on Central Avenue, a Fuel Mart gas station on North Tryon Street and a Subway restaurant on South Boulevard. Upon entering each business, Jones brandished a firearm and demanded money from store employees. In one of the robberies, Jones pointed his firearm at a store employee, threating to shoot her if she did not comply.
Four days later, on Nov. 21, 2015, Jones robbed Beautiful Hair Palace, a business located on Central Avenue in Charlotte. Jones entered the store and, brandishing his firearm, he ordered the store clerk to put store merchandise into a backpack he was carrying and to hand over all the cash from the register. According to court records, when the employee told Jones she did not have access to the register, Jones took $220 from the employee’s wallet. On Nov. 23, 2015, Jones entered iBeauty, a business located on North Tryon Street, posing as a customer interested in certain products. After a few minutes inside the store, court records show that Jones pulled out his firearm and, pointing it at the store owner, he demanded cash and merchandise.
Jones pleaded guilty in August 2016 to five counts of Hobbs Act Robbery and one count of use and carry of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence.
Jones is currently in federal custody, will be transferred to the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons upon designation of a federal facility. All federal sentences are served without the possibility of parole.
The investigation was handled by the FBI and CMPD. Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig Randall of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Charlotte, prosecuted the case.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
