47°
Kenneth Graham, who has diabetes, received a “compassionate release” into home confinement in November 2020 after serving 13½ years of a 17-year sentence for the trio of bank holdups.
Graham, 50, of Newark, had been free all of two months, authorities said, when he walked into a Boost Mobile store in downtown East Orange and announced a robbery in the middle of the afternoon on Jan. 18, 2021.
Pointing a gun, he ordered a store employee to place several cell phones from a display case and cash from the register into a bag, federal authorities said.
Security footage showed Graham getting into a black Nissan Altima and driving away with the loot, U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Philip R. Sellinger said.
He wore a sweatshirt with a distinctive logo – the same as in photos on his cellphone, the U.S. attorney said.
Despite the irrefutable evidence, Graham rejected a plea deal and took his chances with a jury.
Jurors in U.S. District Court in Newark convicted him of Hobbs Act robbery, as well as using, carrying, and brandishing a firearm during a violent crime, following a three-week trial this past March.
Senior U.S. District Court Judge William J. Martini, in turn, sentenced Graham to 330 months -- 27½ years -- followed by five years of supervised release, on Wednesday, Oct. 25. That means he'll have to live to 77 to taste freedom again.
The judge also ordered Graham to repay the victimized store $2,773.
Sellinger credited special agents and task force officers of the FBI in Newark and members of the East Orange Police Department with the investigation leading to the conviction secured by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Benjamin Levin and Jennifer S. Kozar of his Criminal Division in Newark.
Click here to follow Daily Voice Elizabeth and receive free news updates.
