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Thursday, March 28
The Indiana Daily Student

crime & courts

Man gets 3 life sentences for role in Indy, Kokomo Walmart robberies

 

The final man to be sentenced for stealing nearly $250,000 from two Indiana Walmarts was given three concurrent life sentences Thursday. 

Maurice Greer, 54, of Wynn, Arkansas, was found guilty of two counts of interference with interstate commerce by robbery, two counts of brandishing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, possessing a firearm as a felon and conspiracy to interfere with commerce by robbery.

He was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Sarah Evans Barker to three concurrent life sentences plus 32 years in prison. According to a press release from the Department of Justice, he was the last of the five men convicted for the 2015 robberies to be sentenced.

“Those who choose to terrorize our communities and use firearms to further their crimes will be held accountable,” said Indianapolis-United States Attorney Josh Minkler in the press release. 

Between June and September 2015, Greer and multiple other people conspired to rob one Walmart on 10th Street in Indianapolis twice and one Walmart in Kokomo, Indiana once, according to the press release.

“I was praying to God they wouldn’t kill us,” said Lucy Bishop during trial. Bishop was a Walmart employee in Kokomo, Indiana at the time of the robbery.

In each robbery, a handgun was pulled and pointed at victims who were forced to load money into bags. The victims were bound with zip ties and in at least once case, their faces duct taped up to their eyes.

Four people involved in the robberies pleaded guilty and testified against Greer and Christopher Davis, another man involved in the robberies. They were convicted at trial in March 2018.

Greer, Tyrone Townsell and Davis robbed the Walmart in Kokomo, Indiana around 3:30 a.m. Sept. 14, 2015, according to the probable cause affidavit.

Only two of the men entered the Walmart. Court documents don't say which two men. In the Walmart, the two called over Tom Johnson, the assistant manager for overnights of the Walmart at the time of the robbery. According to Johnson's testimony, one of the men pulled a gun on Johnson.

“Don’t say a word,” said the man with the gun, according to Johnson's testimony. “Don’t look at nobody or there’s going to be a lot of hurt people in the store.”

The men led Johnson to the cash room, where Johnson called over Bishop to unlock the cash room for him, Johnson said during the trial. 

One of the men told Bishop not to look at him or he’d shoot her, Bishop said during the trial.

The group then entered another room where the safe was. There, all the money from that night was laying on a counter, ready to be picked up by a Brinks truck in the morning.

Johnson started loading cash into a rolling suitcase the men had stolen.

The men then asked Johnson to open the safe. He lied, telling them he couldn’t open the safe because it opens and shuts at a certain time electronically. 

“I didn’t think I’d see my wife again, my kids,” Johnson said.

The men told Johnson and Bishop to get on the floor with their backs to each other. Their hands and ankles were zip tied, and their faces were duct taped up to their eyes.

“Wait for about 10 or 15 minutes or everybody in the store is dead,” one of the men said before they left with the cash. 

The men left in a Land Rover. The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department had already been granted a search warrant for surveillance of the vehicle from the previous robberies. Through this surveillance, the car was located around 9 a.m. near 16th Street and Shadeland Avenue. Greer, Townsell and Davis, who was driving the car, were arrested.

Johnson said he continued to work at the Walmart in Kokomo for two months before he resigned, in part because of the robbery. He said he was skittish and jumpy when customers came to ask him questions.

At home, he said he didn’t want to leave the house and couldn’t even mow the yard. 

“I just kept looking behind me thinking somebody was going to come up behind me,” Johnson said “I just — I just didn't want to be around nobody or nothing.”

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