NEWS RELEASE

OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY

WESTERN DISTRICT OF MISSOURI

JOHN F. WOOD

Contact Don Ledford, Public Affairs ● (816) 426-4220 ● 400 East Ninth Street, Room 5510 ● Kansas City, MO 64106

www.usdoj.gov/usao/mow/index.html

FEBRUARY 10, 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

KC MAN SENTENCED FOR ARMED ROBBERY

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – John F. Wood, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Kansas City, Mo., man was sentenced in federal court today for robbing an Independence, Mo., convenience store at gunpoint.

Mandingo Sanders, 29, of Kansas City, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Scott O. Wright this afternoon to 10 years in federal prison without parole.

On Sept. 24, 2008, Sanders pleaded guilty to using a firearm during a crime of violence. Sanders admitted that he and another person – an unidentified minor – were carrying firearms when they walked into Rozy’s Convenience Store, 17111 E. 24 Hwy., Independence, on Jan. 19, 2008. Sanders was carrying a rifle and the other person was armed with a shotgun. A third accomplice was waiting as a lookout outside the store.

Sanders demanded that the two store clerks give him all the money out of the cash register. When one of the clerks opened the cash register, Sanders reached into the register and removed the money. As they left the store, Sanders dropped some of the cash and, while picking it up, fired his rifle. They fled the store on foot.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Christina Y. Tabor. It was investigated by the Independence, Mo., Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

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