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Baltimore resident Billy Wesson, 20, has been sentenced to 125 months in federal prison, followed by five years of supervised release for possession with intent to distribute cocaine and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, the Department of Justice announced..
According to his guilty plea, between Aug. 4, and Aug. 7, 2020, Wesson and a co-conspirator committed three armed robberies of convenience stores in Maryland.
In the first robbery on Aug. 4, 2020, the store clerk began to run to the rear of the store when she saw the robbers enter, at which point Wesson chased after her, walked her back to the cash register at gunpoint and stole and an undisclosed amount of cash.
Two days later, on Aug. 6, 2020, Wesson approached a store employee from behind and placed the gun on the back of the employee’s head, telling her to “go to the register and open it.”
Wesson again walked the employee to the register area and ordered her to open the register, which she did and he took off with more cash.
In the third robbery on Aug. 7, 2020, which prosecutors noted was committed less than an hour after the second robbery, Wesson pointed a gun at a store employee immediately upon entering the store.
He ordered the employee to open the register, which he did, but the employee could only open the first cash drawer and not the second drawer. As in the two previous robberies, Wesson took the cash from the drawer and fled the store.
On Aug. 8, 2020, investigators said that four Baltimore Police Department officers were conducting a routine patrol in an unmarked vehicle in the 5100 block of Midwood Avenue in the Winston-Govans neighborhood in Northwest Baltimore where there was a party.
The officers saw their suspect, later identified as Wesson, wearing a satchel across the right side of his body and conducting a “security check,” indicating that Wesson was armed, they added.
As the officers stopped and got out of their car, Wesson fled on foot, throwing his satchel on the sidewalk in the process on Midwood Avenue, where it was recovered by investigators.
Inside the satchel was a loaded gun that matched the weapon used in the robberies, as well as multiple baggies of cocaine packaged for street-level distribution. Once caught, a search of Wesson also led to the recovery of $279 in cash - from drug trafficking - and marijuana.
Officials say that Wesson subsequently admitted that he used the firearm in connection with and to further his cocaine-selling business, and that he was also prohibited from possessing firearms or ammunition.
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