NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) – A Norfolk man was sentenced Friday to two-and-a-half years in prison for attempting to rob a Ghent bank teller and robbing a cashier at a nearby 7-Eleven last year.
Andre Lamar Lewis, Sr., 57, who is noted to have had a long history of mental illness according to the Norfolk Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office, had pleaded guilty to both attempted robbery and robbery Feb. 2, and Judge Robert B. Rigney accepted his plea.
On the morning of July 12, 2022, Lewis went into the Truist Bank at 2200 Colonial Ave., taking one of his own pay stubs and writing on it, “This is a robbery,” and handed the note to the teller.
The teller told her manager and pressed a panic button, and Lewis left without taking anything.
Lewis went into a 7-Eleven at 1713 Colley Ave. about 20 minutes later, grabbed some beer cans, then went to the checkout counter and demanded from the cashier all the money from the register. He left after the cashier handed him $49 cash.
In a third incident from that same day, he went into a 7-Eleven at 1510 Brambleton Ave. and went behind the counter to search for money, threatening a store clerk when she tried to stop him before leaving without anything.
At sentencing, the parties noted the trauma to the victims, his history of mental illness and his remorse.
“When mentally ill people victimize people, we must hold them accountable, and here we have balanced the aggravating and mitigating evidence to do so,” said Commonwealth’s Attorney Ramin Fatehi in a statement. “But our leaders must do more to provide services and support for mentally ill people so that they can receive treatment before their conduct hurts others and requires them to go to prison. Our country can do better than this.”
Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Ethan W. Smith prosecuted Lewis’ case.
