A Newport News man was sentenced Friday to 40 years in prison for robbing prostitutes at Williamsburg and Newport News motels.
Craig Alexander Brodie, 29, was sentenced in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on charges of conspiracy to interfere with commerce by robbery and two counts of brandishing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, according to a U.S. Department of Justice news release.
Brodie pleaded guilty to the charges July 12.
Brodie and a 30-year-old woman, Kimberly Lannytte Gardner, were both involved with a series of robberies from prostitutes between October 2016 and September 2017, according to the release.
Court documents state Brodie sought out three prostitutes on classified advertising websites Craigslist and Backpage, arranged to meet them at motels or hotels, then robbed them at gunpoint.
Gardner, of Gloucester Point, assisted Brodie by driving him to the three motels in Newport News and Williamsburg. She pleaded guilty June 10 to conspiracy to interfere with commerce by robbery and brandishing a firearm, and was later sentenced to 156 months, or 13 years, in prison, court records show.
On some occasions, Brodie sexually assaulted the women while threatening them with the firearm, documents state.
The release added that Brodie sometimes made intimidating statements to the women such as “you don’t understand, you’re about to die,” “next time it will be worse” and “the only reason I’m not killing you is because you have kids.”
“Brodie also bragged about being in the Army and said he was ‘trained for this sort of thing,’” the release said, adding Brodie would take pictures of the women’s driver’s licenses as another intimidation tactic.
Brodie was originally charged by Williamsburg Police with two counts each of abduction, robbery and the use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.
The Williamsburg charges stemmed from two robberies at Williamsburg motels in January, one in the 3000 block of Richmond Road and another in the 500 block of York Street.
The charges in Williamsburg were dropped April 20 when the case got taken up in federal court, Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Maureen Kufro told WYDaily in April.
WYDaily archives were used in this article.
