Baltimore Man Sentenced to 12 Years in Federal Prison for an Armed Robbery He Committed While on Supervised Release for a Prior Armed Robbery

Baltimore, Maryland – Yesterday U.S. District Judge George L. Russell sentenced Rico Dashiell, age 23, of Fort Washington, Maryland to 12 years in federal prison, followed by 3 years of supervised release, for the armed robbery of an Owing Mills phone store and for brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence.

The sentence was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Erek L. Barron; Special Agent in Charge Thomas J. Sobocinski of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Baltimore Field Office; and Chief Melissa R. Hyatt of the Baltimore County Police Department.

According to his guilty plea, in December 2020, Dashiell and two co-conspirators (Co-conspirator 1 and Co-conspirator 2) entered an Owings Mills, Maryland phone store.  Upon entry, Dashiell pretended to be a customer until his co-conspirators entered the store.  At that time, Dashiell brandished a firearm, pointed it at a victim, and said “[y]eah, you know what time it is . . . If you don’t want to die today, do what I say.”  Co-conspirator 1 and Co-conspirator 2 then pointed their firearms at victim employees and customers while yelling “get down.”

Dashiell ordered a victim employee to walk to the back of the store and open the store safe.  Once the safe was opened, conspiracy members stole 76 devices, including a GPS tracker within a cell phone box.  As they left the room containing the safe, Co-conspirator 1 sprayed pepper spray at the victims’ faces.  Dashiell and his co-conspirators then fled the store in a vehicle that Co-conspirator 1 had stolen earlier that day.

As stated in Dashiell’s plea agreement, law enforcement tracked the stolen vehicle to a single-family home in Catonsville, Maryland.  Aerial units filmed Dashiell and his co-conspirators unloading the stolen merchandise from the robbery and bringing it inside the residence.  After law enforcement evacuated two children from the residence, officers executed a search warrant and arrested the defendants.

During the search, law enforcement recovered the gloves, clothing, and headwear worn by the robbers, the 76 devices stolen from the cellular retail store, the canister of pepper spray that was used to assault victims, a victim’s wallet, and three loaded .9mm semi-automatic firearms.  Two of the firearms either did not possess a serial number or displayed an obliterated serial number. 

This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone.  On May 26, 2021, the Department launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results.

United States Attorney Erek L. Barron commended the FBI and the Baltimore County Police Department for their work in the investigation.  Mr. Barron thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul A. Riley, who prosecuted the federal case.

For more information on the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office, its priorities, and resources available to help the community, please visit https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/project-safe-neighborhoods-psnexile and https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/community-outreach.

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