District Man Sentenced to Four-Year Prison Term for Armed Robbery in Northwest Washington

            WASHINGTON – Ashton Hinds, 18, of Washington, D.C., was sentenced today to a four-year prison term for robbing a man last year in a residential neighborhood of Northwest Washington, U.S. Attorney Jessie K. Liu announced.

            Hinds pled guilty in September 2017, in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, to a charge of armed robbery. He was sentenced by the Honorable Anthony C. Epstein. Following his prison term, he is to be placed on five years of supervised release.

            According to the government’s evidence, on April 28, 2017, at approximately 7:25 p.m., Hinds and an accomplice approached a man in front of a residence in the 3100 block of Jocelyn Street NW. One of the robbers demanded the victim hand over his property, and the victim handed over a book bag, containing his personal property and computer. The same assailant reached into the victim’s pants pocket and took the victim’s cell phone. The two robbers demanded to be let inside the house, but the victim refused. The two then fled the area in a gold-colored sedan, and the victim notified the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD).

            At the time of the crime, Hinds was wearing a GPS monitoring device. Law enforcement determined that he was within close proximity to the scene of the armed robbery and also determined a possible location of the vehicle he was using at the time. Police located the vehicle later that evening in the 1300 block of Seventh Street NW. They then obtained an arrest warrant for Hinds. On April 29, officers approached Hinds, who fled the scene and discarded a loaded, semiautomatic handgun. Hinds subsequently was arrested; police recovered the victim’s cellphone from Hinds and other stolen items inside the vehicle. No one else has been arrested.

            In announcing the sentence, U.S. Attorney Liu commended the work of those who investigated the case from the Metropolitan Police Department. She also expressed appreciation for the work of those who handled the case for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, including Assistant U.S. Attorney Vivien Cockburn, who investigated and prosecuted the matter.