Armed Robbery Took Place on Holiday Morning
WASHINGTON - Anthony Morgan, 28, of Washington, D.C. was sentenced today to eight years in prison on two gun charges, including one stemming from the robbery of a food market on Independence Day last summer in Northeast Washington, announced U.S. Attorney Channing D. Phillips and Peter Newsham, Chief of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD).
Morgan pled guilty in March 2017, in the Superior Court for the District of Columbia, to possession of a firearm during a crime of violence and unlawful possession of a firearm by a person convicted of a prior crime of violence. He was sentenced by the Honorable Maribeth Raffinan. Following his prison term, Morgan will be placed on two years of supervised release.
According to the government’s evidence, on the morning of July 4, 2016, Morgan and another man entered the Good Food Market located in the 2000 block of Rhode Island Avenue NE. Morgan had a mask on his face and carried a black handgun. Once inside the store, Morgan approached a store employee and demanded that the worker open the cash register. Morgan then immediately reached into the register and grabbed all of the cash inside. Prior to leaving the store with the money, Morgan pointed his handgun at a second victim. Both Morgan and his accomplice fled the scene.
The Metropolitan Police Department investigated the crime and obtained video surveillance. MPD created and distributed look-out bulletins from still shots in the surveillance, leading to Morgan’s arrest. During a search of Morgan at the time of his arrest, MPD recovered a semi-automatic handgun. Morgan previously was convicted in a 2007 robbery case.
A co-defendant, Alfonzo Jackson, 27, also of Washington, D.C., pled guilty in May 2017 to a robbery charge and is to be sentenced on July 14, 2017.
In announcing the sentence, U.S. Attorney Phillips and Chief Newsham commended the work of those who investigated the case from the Metropolitan Police Department. They also expressed appreciation for the assistance provided by the District of Columbia Department of Forensic Sciences. They acknowledged the efforts of those who worked on the case from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, including Michael Ambrosino, Special Counsel for DNA and Forensic Evidence Litigation, Paralegal Specialist Benjamin Kagan-Guthrie and Diana Lim, Katina Adams-Washington, and LaJune Thames of the Victim/Witness Assistance Unit. Finally, they commended the work of Assistant U.S. Attorney Vanessa Goodwin, who investigated and prosecuted the case.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
