Meriden Man Sentenced to 14 Years in Prison for Violent Robbery Spree

Vanessa Roberts Avery, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, today announced that KENNETH MICHAEL STROTHERS, 27, of Meriden, was sentenced yesterday by U.S. District Judge Victor A. Bolden in New Haven to an effective sentence of 168 months imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release, for a violent armed robbery spree in 2021.

According to court documents and statements made in court, this matter stems from an investigation by the FBI and several local police departments into a series of armed robberies that occurred across Connecticut in early 2021.  The investigation revealed that Strothers committed at least 10 robberies over an approximately two-week period in Meriden, Cromwell, West Hartford, Newington, Wethersfield and New Britain.  The robberies typically involved Strothers stealing a vehicle, selecting and entering a store, threatening victims with a firearm, making demands, and, in some instances, beating victims with the gun before robbing them, causing significant injury and trauma.

The robbery spree ended shortly after Strothers robbed locations in Wethersfield and New Britain.  On February 9, 2021, Strothers entered the Valero gas station store at 930 Silas Deane Highway in Wethersfield, used a firearm to pistol-whip the store clerk in the head, stole approximately $260 from two cash registers, and fled the scene in a stolen car.  The store clerk was hospitalized with a serious head wound.  On February 10, 2021, Strothers entered Broad Street Pawn at 210 Broad Street in New Britain, used a firearm to pistol-whip a store employee in the head, stole approximately $2,000, and fled the scene with two associates in a stolen truck.  Three children of the store owner hid in a bathroom during the robbery.

Strothers was arrested on February 12, 2021, and investigators seized from him the handgun he used during the robberies.  He has been detained in state custody since his arrest.

On February 26, 2024, Strothers pleaded guilty to two counts of interference with commerce by robbery (“Hobbs Act robbery”).

The 14-year federal sentence includes the more than three years Strothers has spent in state custody since his arrest.

This investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the New Britain Police Department, the Wethersfield Police Department, the Newington Police Department, the Cromwell Police Department, the West Hartford Police Department, the Meriden Police Department, and the Connecticut Department of Correction.   The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Karen L. Peck.