Harrisburg Man Sentenced To 77 Years’ Imprisonment For Firearms Offenses And Three Armed Robberies

HARRISBURG – The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that Maurice L. Ross, age 35, of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, was sentenced on September 17, 2019, to 924 months’ imprisonment followed by five years on supervised release, by United States District Court Judge Yvette Kane for unlawful possession of a firearm as a convicted felon and three armed robberies. 

Judge Kane also ordered Ross to pay restitution in the amount of $2,147 to Brookwood Mart and the convenience store clerk victims.

According to United States Attorney David J. Freed, Ross was convicted on November 6, 2018 after a two-day jury trial, of three counts of a felon in possession of a firearm (a Charter Arms .38 caliber revolver), three counts of interference with commerce by threats or violence, and three counts of carrying and brandishing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence.

Ross robbed the Brookwood Mart, located in Harrisburg, by gunpoint on three separate occasions on December 8, 17, and 22, 2016. Each time, he stole hundreds of dollars of cash from the store registers.  Two of the three times, he also stole dozens of instant lottery tickets. The robberies occurred several months after Ross was released from federal prison after serving five years for possession with intent to distribute cocaine base and possessing a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking.

There was surveillance footage from the robberies, but Ross was heavily hooded and masked, so identification was a significant issue, but Ross cashed some of the stolen lottery tickets the morning after one of the robberies at another convenience store, before the tickets could even be reported stolen.  The PA Lottery provided the location, date and time of the cashings, and Harrisburg detectives were able to review in-store surveillance videos at the store where the tickets were cashed.  That surveillance footage revealed a license plate that led detectives to Ross’ residence where a search warrant was executed.  Detectives found the very distinctive gun Ross used in all three robberies, a shirt tied like a mask, a pair of black boots, a black knit hat and a flat-brimmed hat seen in surveillance footage. 

The case was investigated by the Harrisburg Police Department.  Assistant United States Attorneys James T. Clancy and Carl Marchioli prosecuted the case.

This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. The Department of Justice reinvigorated PSN in 2017 as part of the Department’s renewed focus on targeting violent criminals, directing all U.S. Attorney’s Offices to work in partnership with federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement and the local community to develop effective, locally-based strategies to reduce violent crime.

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