VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) – A Virginia Beach man will spend 24 years in prison for his role in a string of local grocery store robberies. A Harris Teeter manager was shot during the final one.
Federal prosecutors say 20-year-old Darrius Heuser-Whitaker, a known Bloods gang member, was one of two masked gunman who robbed a Virginia Beach Food Lion and attempted to rob a Harris Teeter store, also in Virginia Beach.
According to court documents, he held a gun to the store managers’ backs while demanding money from the safe.
In the attempted robbery at the Harris Teeter, the other gunman, Devonta Doyle, shot the manager who was having trouble opening the safe.
The manager survived.
As the suspects fled that scene, they threw their shoes out the getaway car. Police and the FBI found the shoes and used DNA to link one of them to Heuser-Whitaker. He was convicted on all counts in July and sentenced this week.
There were a total of ten defendants tied to the string of armed robberies of local grocery stores. Heuser-Whitaker is the next-to-last to be sentenced.
| Defendant | Role | Sentence |
| Trevor Tisdale | Getaway driver at 2 robberies | 100 months |
| Quayshawn Davidson | Gunman at one robbery (brandished) | 108 months |
| Keonte Yorkshire | Outside lookout at 2 robberies; inside lookout at 1 robbery | 150 months |
| Brandon Tisdale | Participated in 3 robberies; outside lookout and getaway driver | 154 months |
| Devonta Doyle | Participated in 3 robberies; gunman at 2 robberies; fired weapon at last robbery | 212 months |
| Cato Battle | Participated in two robberies; gunman at 1 robbery | 115 months |
| Monica Perkins | Inside lookout at one robbery | 108 months |
| Willey Brooks | Supervisory role; inside lookout at one robbery | 216 months |
