NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — A member of the Bloods street gang has been sentenced to 24 years in prison for acting as the gunman in several armed robberies at Hampton Roads grocery stores.
Darrius Heuser-Whitaker, 20, was sentenced late Monday in federal court in Norfolk, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.
According to the release, Heuser-Whitaker was one of two masked gunmen who robbed a Virginia Beach Food Lion. They also tried to rob a Harris Teeter in the city.
Heuser-Whitaker pushed a semi-automatic handgun into store managers’ backs and ordered them to give him money from the safes in the stores.
Heuser-Whitaker is one of 10 people who were arrested in connection with the robberies. The group worked in teams of at least six people to orchestrate the crimes, the release said.
The final robbery attempt was unsuccessful. The other masked gunman, Devonta Doyle, shot the manager of a Harris Teeter after they were unable to open the safe. Doyle, Heuser-Whitaker and others fled the scene and threw their shoes out of the car they were riding in near Regent University.
Police later linked one of the shoes to Heuser-Whitaker through DNA analysis. Most of the other suspects were linked to a group of friends from the College Park neighborhood of Virginia Beach.
Heuser-Whitaker is the next-to-last person to be sentenced. The group of people, their roles and sentences include:
- Trevor Tisdale, getaway driver at two robberies, 100 months
- Quayshawn Davidson, gunman at one robbery (brandished), 108 months
- Keonte Yorkshire, outside lookout at two robberies; inside lookout at one robbery, 150 months
- Brandon Tisdale, participated in all three robberies; outside lookout and getaway driver, 154 months
- Devonta Doyle, participated in all three robberies; gunman at two robberies; discharged weapon at last robbery, 212 months
- Cato Battle, participated in two robberies; gunman at one robbery, 115 months
- Monica Perkins, inside lookout at one robbery, 108 months
- Willey Brooks, supervisory role; inside lookout at one robbery, 216 months
