A federal jury in Washington, D.C., found Deaundre Blount guilty on five counts on November 5, 2026, for his part in a series of pharmacy and phone store robberies. The verdict covered three individual robberies and two conspiracies. U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson scheduled sentencing for March 2, 2027.
Three robberies inside a wider case
In its verdict announcement, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia identified the three incidents as robberies of a Walgreens in Neptune, New Jersey, a CVS in Nottingham, Maryland, and a T-Mobile in College Park, Maryland. Prosecutors said the broader crew targeted stores in D.C., Maryland, Virginia and New Jersey from 2020 to 2021, seeking prescription drugs and phones for resale.
The 2023 indictment in case 1:23-cr-00190 spells out what prosecutors originally alleged. The November verdict tells readers what the jury found as to Blount. For example, the College Park count concerned phones allegedly taken from a store in the presence of employees; the jury’s finding covered the robbery count itself. The wider list of incidents in the investigation is not a list of robberies for which this particular defendant was convicted.
Why a store robbery can be a federal case
The Hobbs Act covers robbery or extortion that affects commerce, as well as attempts and conspiracies to do so. Here, the verdict included a robbery conspiracy, a separate conspiracy involving distribution of controlled substances, and three completed robbery counts. Each count describes a different part of the prosecution’s case.
Other defendants have already been sentenced. A separate October 13 announcement recorded a 140-month sentence for Ashley Gause, whom prosecutors identified as a co-leader. That is Gause’s sentence. Blount’s verdict has been returned, but his punishment is still to be decided. Follow Trials & Outcomes for coverage of the difference between a verdict and a sentence.
Photo credit: Ajay Suresh · CC BY 4.0. Resized for publication.
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