Timothy Woodard, a 26-year-old resident of Memphis, has been sentenced to 315 months in federal prison for his involvement in a series of hotel robberies in Memphis during late 2022. The sentence was announced by Reagan Fondren, Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee.
The incidents began on October 19, 2022, when Woodard entered a hotel and threatened a clerk with a handgun, demanding money from the cash drawer. He managed to take approximately $400 and later forced the clerk to open the hotel safe, from which he took an additional $300.
On December 19, 2022, Woodard committed another robbery at a second hotel. Armed with a semi-automatic handgun, he intimidated two desk clerks and stole around $1,500 from the cash registers.
Later that same day, Woodard targeted a third hotel with an accomplice. He jumped over the counter and again used a semi-automatic handgun to threaten the clerk. In this incident, he seized between $800-$1000 from the register and an additional $300-$500 from the clerk's wallet.
In December 2023, Woodard was indicted by a grand jury in the Western District of Tennessee on six counts: three counts of "robbery affecting commerce" under Hobbs Act Robbery (18 U.S.C. § 1951) and three counts of brandishing a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence (18 U.S.C. § 924(c)). On May 15, 2024, he pled guilty to all charges.
United States District Court Judge Mark S. Norris handed down the sentence on November 21, 2024. After serving his prison term, Woodard will undergo three years of supervised release as there is no parole in the federal system.
The investigation was led by the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Safe Streets Task Force alongside the Memphis Police Department. Acting U.S. Attorney Fondren expressed gratitude towards Assistant United States Attorney Lorraine Craig for prosecuting this case and acknowledged law enforcement partners involved in the investigation.
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