DALLAS—Devonte Aaron Dillard, 24, was sentenced yesterday by U.S. District Judge Sam A. Lindsay to serve a total of 240 months in federal prison for his role in committing several violent armed robberies in Dallas in 2015, announced U.S. Attorney John Parker of the Northern District of Texas.
Dillard pleaded guilty in July 2016 to one count of conspiracy to interfere with commerce by robbery and one count of using, carrying, brandishing and discharging a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence. Judge Lindsay sentenced him to 120 months on each of the two counts, to run consecutively.
Three of Dillard’s codefendants in the case, Colby Cole Ditto, 21, Tatiana Renee Sallie, 20, and Trenton Kyle Sirkel, 21, have pleaded guilty to their respective roles in the conspiracy and are awaiting sentencing. Lead defendant Michael Deshun Holland, Jr., 22, is currently set to go to trial February 6, 2017, before Judge Lindsay.
According to documents filed in the case, the five defendants discussed and planned with each other, among other thing, the robberies of convenience stores located in Mesquite and Garland, Texas.
On April 17, 2015, while Sallie waited in the car, Dillard and Holland entered the Chevron Food Mart on Highway 80 in Mesquite and brandished a firearm. Dillard shot the store employee while he and Holland robbed the store.
On May 8, 2015, Dillard, Holland, Ditto and Sirkel entered the 7-Eleven store on Interstate Highway 30 in Mesquite, brandished a firearm, and robbed the store.
On May 12, 2015, Dillard, Holland, Ditto and Sallie entered the 7-Eleven store on Gus Thomasson Road in Mesquite, brandished a firearm, struck an employee in the head with the firearm, and robbed the store.
That same night, Dillard, Holland, Ditto and Sallie went to the 7-Eleven store on Northwest Highway in Garland, brandished a firearm, assaulted a store employee, and robbed the store.
The case was investigated by Mesquite Police Department, Garland Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jamie Hoxie and Keith Robinson are in charge of the prosecution.
# # #