Man Who Robbed Two Towson Stores Sentenced to 11 Years

A Baltimore who admitted to robbing two stores in Towson will be spending the next 135 months in jail, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland reported Friday.

Antonio Rennard Gilliam, 43, of the 6500 block of Windsor Mill Road, pleaded guilty to robbing a Taylor Avenue cell phone store and a Towson Town Center swimsuit shop, according to the report.

According to Gilliam’s plea agreement, at 12:40 p.m. on Aug. 19, 2013, he told a clerk at Boost Mobile in the 800 block of Taylor Avenue that he wanted to change his service. He waited until there were no other customers in the store, then approached the cash register with his hand in his pocket, as though he had a handgun, demanding money, the agreement said.

Gilliam made off with approximately $300 and ran into a wooded area on the south side of Goucher Boulevard, where he was found and taken into custody after police initiated an aviation and K-9 search, the plea agreement stated.

At the police station, Gilliam told police he had not been able to find work and needed money, court documents state. He also admitted to taking $298 in a robbery at Everything But Water, a swimwear store in Towson Town Center, at approximately 10:45 a.m. on Aug. 15, 2013, according to the plea agreement.

Gilliam denied to law enforcement that he had a gun during either robbery, although he told the clerk at the swimwear store that he had a gun in his bag and ordered her to get in the back of the store and not come out, causing her to fear for her safety, court documents show.

The U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland reported that Gilliam was sentenced to 11.25 years in prison followed by three years of supervised release for a commercial robbery and for violating his supervised release from a previous bank robbery conviction.

The maximum sentence was 20 years, according to the plea agreement.