A Landover man who stormed with another man into the Shell gas station near Westfield Montgomery mall in Bethesda and stole cash and cigarettes was sentenced Wednesday to 16 years in prison by Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Nelson Rupp.
Parris Xavier Allen, 23, was found guilty of armed robbery by a jury in September.
Police said Allen was one of two men—one armed with a handgun—who wore masks when they stormed into the 24-hour gas station on Westlake Drive around 2:20 a.m. on Sept. 8, 2015.
The men ordered a customer to lie on the ground and then ordered a clerk to empty the cash register. Just before they fled the scene, one of the men could be seen in a surveillance video grabbing packs of Newport cigarettes from behind the cash register and dumping them into a black plastic bag.
Investigators later found a dropped cigarette pack on the ground outside the gas station that contained a fingerprint that they linked to Allen. Allen had been arrested in three other burglary and weapons-related offenses in Prince George’s County previously, according to court records.
“Today’s sentence is appropriate for this violent crime,” Ramon Korionoff, a spokesman for the Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office, said in a statement. “We appreciate that the store owners had put in a very good video surveillance system in their gas station… It was instrumental in putting together a strong case in this matter.”
Police have not announced whether they have arrested or identified a second suspect in the case.