D.C. Man Sentenced To Federal Prison For Maryland Armed Robbery Spree

Tuesday, May 20, 2025, 9:30 A.M. ET. 2 Minute Read, By Art Fletcher: Englebrook Independent News,

GREENBELT, MD.- A 68-year-old Washington, D.C., man found out that he would die in federal prison after being sentenced yesterday to over 30 years for his role in two violent armed robberies of a Maryland auto repair shop and a barbershop back in November of 2016.

     On Monday, May 19, 2025, William David Hill, also known as “Old Man” and “Tank,” 68, of Washington, D.C., appeared in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland and was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Lydia K. Griggsby to 396 months in federal prison, to be followed by five years of supervised release for his conviction of Federal Hobbs Act Robbery offenses.

     According to U.S. Attorney Kelly O. Hayes, on July 3, 2019, following a seven-day trial in Federal Court in Greenbelt, Maryland, a jury convicted Hill and co-defendant Ronnell Francis Lewis on multiple counts for the robberies.

According To Evidence Presented At Trial

     According to evidence presented at trial on November 22, 2016, Lewis, Hill, and a co-conspirator robbed an auto repair business in Clinton, Maryland. Specifically, the evidence proved that the trio entered the business brandishing firearms and ordered the two employees to the ground. The defendants took money from the employees’ pockets and ordered them into the front office.

     They then bound and gagged one of the employees with zip ties and duct tape, respectively. The second employee fought. As a result, the trio shot and ultimately paralyzed the second employee before fleeing in a vehicle they had stolen earlier in the day.

     As outlined in the charging documents and detailed during the trial on November 26, 2016, the defendants also robbed a barbershop in Seat Pleasant, Maryland. According to the trial testimony, the two defendants entered the business, ordered everyone at gunpoint to the ground, and robbed them. During the robbery, the defendants threatened the victims with violence. The defendants then put the money in a single-strap duffle bag and fled in a stolen minivan.

     Following the robbery, Police Officers spotted the minivan at a traffic light and attempted to halt it, but the driver refused to stop, fleeing into Washington, D.C. Police Officers eventually stopped Lewis and the driver and took them into custody. The third person, later identified as Hill, escaped but was eventually apprehended.