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HCI-endorsed Legislator's Daughter Gets 9inRobbery
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
Lawmaker's Daughter Gets 9 Years in Robbery
By Tom Jackman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, June 15, 2002; Page B03
The daughter of a Virginia legislative leader was sentenced yesterday to more than nine years in federal prison for her role in a Fairfax City gas station robbery that authorities say was one of a string of nine holdups in Virginia and New York last summer.
In March, Ashley E. Devolites, 20, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Alexandria to charges in the Aug. 9 robbery of the Jermantown Shell station at Route 50 and Jermantown Road.
Devolites admitted riding with two men, both in their early twenties, to the station in a 1990 Honda registered to her parents, then going inside to determine how many employees were there. She is the daughter of Del. Jeannemarie Devolites (R-Fairfax), the House majority whip.
Devolites returned to the car, and Emanuel Aquino of Suffolk County, N.Y., went inside, brandishing a shotgun, and robbed the station of $700, authorities said. The robbery was recorded by a surveillance camera.
Devolites, Aquino and a third suspect, Christopher Martin, also of Suffolk County, spent the $700 on food, alcohol, a hotel room and drugs, authorities said.
Aquino and Martin were arrested Aug. 17 in Suffolk County, on Long Island, after robbing a service station while Devolites waited in a nearby motel, authorities said.
Prosecutors said Martin admitted his involvement in the Fairfax City robbery. But Devolites lied to authorities and tried to persuade Martin to withhold information, according to a statement of facts signed by Devolites.
"It's like a lot of these cases," said her attorney, David W. Deane. "In the beginning, when they're requesting information, self-preservation comes into play. She just got mixed up with a couple guys she obviously shouldn't have."
Martin pleaded guilty to the same charges as Devolites -- robbery and brandishing a firearm during a felony -- but he received a sentence that is six months shorter because he cooperated initially. Aquino is awaiting trial in New York.
Chief U.S. District Judge Claude M. Hilton sentenced Devolites to 2 1/2 years for the robbery charge and a mandatory seven years for the weapons charge, with the terms to be served consecutively. He recommended that Devolites be allowed to serve her sentence at the minimum-security prison in Alderson, W.Va.
"I just want to apologize to the court and my family, who've been very, very supportive throughout this entire time," Devolites said during the brief hearing.
Jeannemarie Devolites and her ex-husband, John Devolites, were in court for the hearing. She said afterward: "I think it's a shame that all the members of the press that are here today do not have the common decency to show a family some privacy during a difficult time." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54584-2002Jun14.html
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
By Tom Jackman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, June 15, 2002; Page B03
The daughter of a Virginia legislative leader was sentenced yesterday to more than nine years in federal prison for her role in a Fairfax City gas station robbery that authorities say was one of a string of nine holdups in Virginia and New York last summer.
In March, Ashley E. Devolites, 20, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Alexandria to charges in the Aug. 9 robbery of the Jermantown Shell station at Route 50 and Jermantown Road.
Devolites admitted riding with two men, both in their early twenties, to the station in a 1990 Honda registered to her parents, then going inside to determine how many employees were there. She is the daughter of Del. Jeannemarie Devolites (R-Fairfax), the House majority whip.
Devolites returned to the car, and Emanuel Aquino of Suffolk County, N.Y., went inside, brandishing a shotgun, and robbed the station of $700, authorities said. The robbery was recorded by a surveillance camera.
Devolites, Aquino and a third suspect, Christopher Martin, also of Suffolk County, spent the $700 on food, alcohol, a hotel room and drugs, authorities said.
Aquino and Martin were arrested Aug. 17 in Suffolk County, on Long Island, after robbing a service station while Devolites waited in a nearby motel, authorities said.
Prosecutors said Martin admitted his involvement in the Fairfax City robbery. But Devolites lied to authorities and tried to persuade Martin to withhold information, according to a statement of facts signed by Devolites.
"It's like a lot of these cases," said her attorney, David W. Deane. "In the beginning, when they're requesting information, self-preservation comes into play. She just got mixed up with a couple guys she obviously shouldn't have."
Martin pleaded guilty to the same charges as Devolites -- robbery and brandishing a firearm during a felony -- but he received a sentence that is six months shorter because he cooperated initially. Aquino is awaiting trial in New York.
Chief U.S. District Judge Claude M. Hilton sentenced Devolites to 2 1/2 years for the robbery charge and a mandatory seven years for the weapons charge, with the terms to be served consecutively. He recommended that Devolites be allowed to serve her sentence at the minimum-security prison in Alderson, W.Va.
"I just want to apologize to the court and my family, who've been very, very supportive throughout this entire time," Devolites said during the brief hearing.
Jeannemarie Devolites and her ex-husband, John Devolites, were in court for the hearing. She said afterward: "I think it's a shame that all the members of the press that are here today do not have the common decency to show a family some privacy during a difficult time." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54584-2002Jun14.html
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878