VIRGINIA BEACH — A 23-year-old Norfolk man will serve time in prison for a 2016 robbery.
Jamal Tyree Mitchell was sentenced Monday to 21 years in prison, with eight years suspended, leaving 13 years to serve, for robbery, conspiracy, and use of a firearm – charges he pleaded guilty to in March.
Circuit Court Judge A. Bonwill Shockley also ordered Mitchell to serve an additional two years for possession of an unauthorized weapon. He pleaded guilty to this charge Monday.
The robbery that earned Mitchell prison time happened on June 9, 2016.
At around 11 p.m., a woman was driving home to Virginia Beach from Norfolk on Interstate 264 when she was cut off by a Hyundai.
In response, she honked her horn.
When she arrived at her home in the Red Mill area, she noticed the Hyundai had followed there, according to the Virginia Beach Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office.
Two men got out, and one pointed a gun at her and demanded her purse, bags, and car keys. The woman’s cellphone was also taken during the robbery. One of the men told her they would come back later for her car.
Two blue bags fell from her car during the incident. Fingerprint analysis was done on the bags, and Mitchell’s prints were found to be on them, prosecutors said.
Investigators tracked the woman’s cellphone the next morning to an area off Rosemont Road. There, officers found Mitchell, he had the woman’s cellphone — it was ringing when police called the number.
Mitchell and the other two suspects — Zimonion Adams, who was a juvenile at the time of the offense, and Tavis Johnson, were seen in video surveillance footage at the Wawa gas station on Rosemont Road arriving in the Hyundai, which was previously reported stolen in Norfolk.
Prosecutors said Mitchell’s fingerprints were also found on the victim’s cellphone case and all over the Hyundai.
While in jail awaiting trial on Nov. 17, 2017, Mitchell was found in possession of a 6 ½ inch “sharpened metal weapon,” which was found under his mattress.
Johnson is scheduled for a jury trial on Oct. 30, 2018.
Adams pleaded guilty to robbery and conspiracy. He was committed to the Department of Juvenile Justice as a serious offender, according to the Commonwealth Attorney’s Office.
Mitchell has prior convictions for unlawful wounding and burglary. He has several adjudications as a juvenile for larceny offenses.
