Washington, D.C. – A 26-year-old District Heights, Maryland man, Renard Lathern, was sentenced Tuesday, August, 19, 2008, in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia by the Honorable J. Ramsey Johnson to 12 years in prison and ten years of supervised release on four charges related to the armed robbery of a convenience store in the 1700 block of North Capitol Street, NW, on January 12, 2006, U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor announced.

On April 7, 2008, following a week-long trial, a Superior Court jury found Lathern guilty of two counts of Armed Robbery and two counts of Possession of a Firearm During a Crime of Violence. According to the government’s evidence, on January 12, 2006, at about 1:57 p.m., Lathern and two other men carrying a gun entered the convenience store and placed the clerk and owner on the floor. At gunpoint, the men took the clerk’s money and wallet, as well as the owner’s purse, money and other valuables. Lathern then forced the owner to open the cash register, and stole money, cigarettes, and lottery tickets from the store counter. As customers came into the store during the course of the robbery, they were forced onto the ground at gunpoint. Afterwards, the three men fled.

A store security camera captured the robbery. In addition, the owner recognized and identified Lathern, a man she saw regularly in the neighborhood, as one of the robbers. The owner described him to police and ultimately helped them stop and arrest him two weeks after the robbery, on January 26th.

In announcing the sentence, U.S. Attorney Taylor commended lead Metropolitan Police Department Detective Carla Talley, who investigated the case, and Detective Eric Shuler,
Investigator Durriyya Habeebullah, Crime Scene Search Officer Tira Gibson, and Officers Steve Pappas, Chad Leo, and Yusuf Edwards, who were instrumental in investigating and preparing the case, and Officers Eric Brown, Kevin Carey, Scott Dowling, Charles Duckett, Thomas Gainer, Michael Jenkins and William Wood, who assisted in the arrest. Finally, U.S. Attorney Taylor expressed his appreciation to Assistant U.S. Attorneys Melinda Williams and Stephen Spiegelhalter, who prepared the case for trial, and Jonathan Hooks, who handled the trial and sentencing.