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Donte Antwaun Herring was found guilty following an eight-day trial for his roles in robberies in Halethorpe and Owings Mills less than a week apart when he and his co-conspirator brandished weapons and stole electronics.
According to prosecutors, on Dec. 17, 2020, the two walked into a phone store in the 3900 block of Washington Boulevard posing as customers before announcing a robbery and breaking out handguns, pointing them in the direction of customers and an employee.
They ordered the employee to the store's safe, stole multiple electronic devices that included Apple iPhones, watches, and iPads, as well as cash from the register before fleeing in a maroon minivan.
Witnesses testified that days later, on Dec. 23, 2020, a third man, Rico Dashiell entered a business in the 10000 block of Reistertown Road in Owings Mills, acting as a customer, at which point Herring and another cohort walked into the store with weapons, again pointing the gun at an employee.
They ordered customers to get on the floor and empty their pockets before demanding an employee to the safe, where they stole 76 devices and put them in garbage bags they brought with them.
According to trial testimony, as Herring and the co-conspirator left the room, the latter sprayed pepper spray at the victims’ faces while Dashiell stole $322 from the register.
They then fled in a vehicle that had been reported stolen earlier in the day, which was tracked to a home in Catonsville, where Aviation Units filmed the three unloading the electronics into the residence.
"As detailed in trial testimony, law enforcement officers arrived at the residence and attempted for hours to make contact with the suspects and any other occupants of the residence," prosecutors said.
"After two young children who lived at the residence (who had no relation to the robbers) came out of the house, law enforcement executed a search warrant of the residence and arrested the robbers, who had been hiding in the attic."
Herring faces a max term of 20 years in federal prison on two counts of interference with commerce by robbery, and a mandatory minimum of seven years and up to life in prison for two counts of brandishing a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence.
He is scheduled to be sentenced in May.
Dashiell, 25, of Fort Washington, pleaded guilty to robbery and was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison.
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