Man Sentenced to 1½ Years for Stealing From NEX in 2021
NORFOLK, Va. – A judge sentenced Robert Christopher Howard, 36, on Friday to one and a half years in prison for shoplifting from the Navy Main Navy Exchange in 2021 and failing to abide by the terms of his 2022 plea agreement in this case.
On April 28, 2021, Mr. Howard entered the NEX, he loaded various electronics and clothing items totaling more than $3,000 into a shopping cart, and a loss prevention officer saw him leave the store pushing the cart past all points of sale without paying. The officer stopped Mr. Howard after he left the store, contacted Norfolk Police, and recovered all the merchandise.
Mr. Howard was charged with grand larceny, to which he pleaded guilty on Jan. 9, 2022. Judge Tasha D. Scott accepted Mr. Howard’s plea agreement in which a finding of guilt for a lesser charge would be taken under advisement conditioned upon Mr. Howard being of uniform good behavior for one year and completing 50 hours of community service.
However, between entering his plea agreement and Friday, Mr. Howard instead committed crimes in other Hampton Roads jurisdictions — including Virginia Beach, Portsmouth, Hampton, Chesapeake, York County/Poquoson, Newport News, Williamsburg/James City County, and Suffolk — resulting in one felony and 41 misdemeanor convictions. For those convictions, Mr. Howard has already been sentenced to an active six years and four months in custody.
On Friday, Judge Mary Jane Hall found that Mr. Howard failed to comply with his plea agreement and convicted Mr. Howard of grand larceny from the NEX incident. Judge Hall sentenced him to one and a half years in prison, with an additional two and a half years suspended on the conditions that Mr. Howard be banned from the NEX, complete substance abuse treatment while incarcerated, and complete three years of uniform good behavior and a period of indeterminate supervised probation following his release. Mr. Howard’s advisory guidelines recommended a sentence of no more than six months, but the judge imposed a prison sentence above the guidelines due to Mr. Howard’s new offenses.
“Our office offers second chances to people who have the potential to reform, said Commonwealth’s Attorney Ramin Fatehi. “Mr. Howard got one of those second chances, but rather than reform, he committed new crimes, and now he must serve the sentences he has earned.”
Senior Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Emily A. Woodley prosecuted Mr. Howard’s case on behalf of the Commonwealth.
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