Pittsburgh Resident Sentenced to Over 24 Years in Prison for Conviction of Robbery and Discharging a Firearm During a Robbery

PITTSBURGH, PA - A resident of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, has been sentenced in federal court to over 24 years in prison on his conviction of robbery and discharging a firearm during a robbery, as well as for violations of supervised release, United States Attorney Eric G. Olshan announced today.

United States District Judge J. Nicholas Ranjan imposed the sentence on Deon Reese, age 48, of Pittsburgh.

According to information presented during a jury trial earlier this year and to the court, in March 2017, Reese participated in a robbery in which the victim was shot and nearly killed. The victim suffered extensive injures as a result of the shooting. Additionally, Reese engaged in efforts to obstruct justice by trying to convince the victim not to cooperate with the investigation and prosecution of him.

Prior to imposing the sentence, Judge Ranjan stated that the sentence was based on a number of factors, including the seriousness of the offense and Reese’s criminal history. Reese was on federal supervised release at the time of the offense, and the robbery constituted a violation of that supervised release. Judge Ranjan imposed a sentence of 271 months, or around 22 ½ years, of incarceration in connection with the robbery conviction, and an additional sentence of 24 months, or 2 years, of incarceration for the supervised release violations.

Assistant United States Attorney Doug Maloney and Assistant United States Attorney Shaun Sweeny prosecuted this case on behalf of the government.

United States Attorney Olshan commended the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives and the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police for the investigation leading to the successful prosecution of Reese.