Baltimore Man Pleads Guilty to Five Armed Robberies of Dunbar Armored Vehicles
Stole $555,000 and Employee Handguns

BALTIMORE—David Marquise Howard, age 27, of Baltimore, pleaded guilty today to robbery and gun charges arising from a scheme to rob armored car employees who were transporting large amounts of cash.

The guilty plea was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Acting Special Agent in Charge Timothy P. Groh of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; Chief J. Thomas Manger of the Montgomery County Police Department; Howard County Police Chief William McMahon; Howard County State’s Attorney Dario Broccolino; and Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy.

According to the statement of facts in his guilty plea, on five occasions from April 29, 2009, through April 4, 2011, Howard and other co-conspirators robbed employees of Dunbar Armored at gunpoint, in each instance stealing cash and a handgun from a Dunbar employee. Four of the robberies took place in Silver Spring, Maryland, on April 29 and December 23, 2009, May 17, 2010, and April 4, 2011. The additional robbery took place on December 27, 2010, in Ellicott City, Maryland.

In order to conceal their identities, Howard and his accomplice wore disguises and purchased “throw-away” cars that they used to commit the robberies. Additionally, Howard and his co-conspirators used disposable cell phones to communicate during the robberies, arranged for vehicles and drivers to be near the robberies in order to facilitate their quick flight, and, on several occasions, rented hotel rooms on the days of the robberies, where they met and divided the stolen cash and arranged for the disposal of the stolen guns.

Howard hid some of the stolen cash and the guns used in the April 4, 2011 robbery in a storage unit in Pennsylvania. After his arrest for the Montgomery County robberies in May 2011, Howard removed $2,000 in stolen new $20 bills from his groin area and took law enforcement to a location at the corner of Eldorado Avenue and Carleview Road in Baltimore where he had buried a bag containing $10,000 of the money stolen in the April 4, 2011 robbery, along with a disposable cell phone box.

In the five robberies Howard stole a total of approximately $555,000.

Howard faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for conspiracy to commit robbery. In addition, he faces a consecutive minimum sentence of seven years in prison for the first count of using and brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence and a consecutive minimum sentence of 25 years in prison for the second count of using and brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence. U.S. District Judge Marvin J. Garbis has scheduled sentencing for November 20, 2012, at 2:15 p.m.

United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein praised the FBI, Montgomery County Police Department, Howard County Police Department; Howard County State’s Attorney’s Office, and Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office for their work in the investigation and prosecution. Mr. Rosenstein thanked Assistant United States Attorney Mark Crooks, who is prosecuting the case.