Armed Robber Exiled to 25 Years in Prison
Robbed an Armored Car Employee

GREENBELT, MD—U.S. District Judge Roger W. Titus sentenced Alton May, age 49, of Washington, D.C., today to 25 years in prison, followed by five years of supervised release, for the robbery of an armored car employee. Judge Titus enhanced May’s sentence upon finding that he is a career offender based on previous drug and assault convictions.

The sentence was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Special Agent in Charge Stephen E. Vogt of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; Special Agent in Charge Steven L. Gerido of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives-Baltimore Field Division; Chief Mark A. Magaw of the Prince George’s County Police Department; Chief J. Thomas Manger of the Montgomery County Police Department; and Chief Cathy L. Lanier of the Metropolitan Police Department.

According to May’s plea agreement, on May 3, 2011, he and a co-defendant, both armed with handguns, robbed an armored car employee at a convenience store in Glenarden, Maryland. The employee was at the convenience store to refill the ATM located in the store. The employee gave May and his co-defendant the money bag and one of the robbers also stole the employee’s handgun. The robbers fled on foot to an apartment complex behind the store where they got into May’s car and proceeded to his residence. On the way, they took the money from the bag and threw the bag in a dumpster. Once they arrived at May’s residence, they located and destroyed a GPS tracking device that was in the money. May and his co-defendant threw the cash, three handguns, and two baseball caps used in the robbery onto the roof of the building and then jumped out the window. The GPS device allowed law enforcement to track the money from the convenience store to the dumpster and to May’s residence, where they recovered the cash, guns, and hats from the roof. One of the guns recovered was the one stolen from the armored car employee. Officers also recovered pieces of the broken GPS tracker in May’s apartment and an individual in the area identified May as one of the people he saw jump out of the window of May’s apartment.

May initially fled to New York but was arrested in Montgomery County on November 7, 2011, when he fled from officers who were attempting to perform a traffic stop on the car May was driving.

United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein commended the FBI, ATF, Prince George’s County Police Department, Montgomery County Police Department, and Metropolitan Police Department for their work in the investigation. Mr. Rosenstein thanked Assistant United States Attorneys Deborah A. Johnson and Leah J. Bressack, who prosecuted the case.