Serial Robber Sentenced to More Than 65 Years for Committing String of Walgreens Robberies
Orlando, Florida – U.S. Attorney Robert E. O’Neill announces that U.S. District Judge Anne C. Conway today sentenced Terry Jerome Cason (29, Orlando) to 65 years and four months in federal prison. On November 15, 2011, a federal jury found Cason guilty of one count of conspiracy to interfere with interstate commerce by robbery, three counts of interference with interstate commerce by robbery, three counts of using and brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence, and being a felon in possession of a firearm.
According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, between November 23, 2010 and December 7, 2010, Cason robbed three different Orlando area Walgreens stores. The stores are located in Lake Mary, Winter Park and Winter Garden. During each of theses robberies, Cason entered the store during the early morning hours, rounded up all of the employees at gunpoint, forced the employees to empty the store safe, and then after taking the employees' cell phones, forced them into the walk-in cooler. During the final robbery in Winter Garden, Winter Garden police officers responded to the scene just as Cason was leaving the store. Cason and his getaway driver, Regina Whitaker, led police on a high-speed chase. The chase ended on Interstate 4 when the getaway car ran out of gas. At the end of the chase, Cason engaged in a stand-off with responding officers before finally surrendering. A subsequent search of Cason's residence revealed a slip of paper containing the addresses of five additional Walgreens stores throughout the greater Orlando area.
Cason committed these robberies less than two months after completing a federal prison sentence for being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Regina Whitaker pled guilty to charges of conspiracy to interfere with commerce by robbery and using and brandishing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence. She was sentenced to four years in federal prison on November 17, 2011.
This case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office, the Winter Park Police Department, and the Winter Garden Police Department. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Vincent S. Chiu.
It is another case prosecuted as a part of the Department of Justice’s Project Safe Neighborhoods
program – a nationwide, gun-violence reduction strategy led by ATF. United States Attorney Robert E. O’Neill, along with Virginia O'Brien, Special Agent in Charge, ATF, is coordinating the Project Safe Neighborhoods effort here in the Middle District of Florida in cooperation with federal, state, and local law enforcement officials.
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