November 12th, 2021 – 10:30 AM
Staff Reports –
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office Northern District of Georgia, 28-year-old Rome man, Anthony Lavell Williams Jr, has been sentenced for perpetrating a string of armed robberies that took place in Chattooga county, as well as Carroll, Catoosa, Cobb, and Hall Counties.
During these robberies, Williams assaulted pharmacy customers and forced employees to surrender cash and tens of thousands of opioids and amphetamines to him.
“Driven by greed, Anthony Williams terrorized our community and sought to profit off of the opioid epidemic,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Kurt R. Erskine. “This epidemic tragically claims many American lives every year. A multi-agency response at all levels of government and from every corner of this district has brought him to justice.”
According to Acting U.S. Attorney Erskine, the charges and other information presented in court: Willia
ms, while armed with a handgun, robbed five retail pharmacies between May 2020 and July 2020. Williams escaped with approximately $9,600 in cash and more than $183,000 of controlled substances. The pharmacies’ losses were eclipsed by the street value of the stolen drugs, which included but was not limited to nearly 44,000 doses of opioids and more than 5,700 tablets containing amphetamine.
Williams’s robberies were carefully planned and increasingly violent. During the May 11, 2020 robbery of a pharmacy in Summerville, Georgia, Williams held store employees at gunpoint, forced them to empty cash registers, and then forced them to another part of the store while he escaped.
Williams was sentenced by Chief U.S. District Judge Timothy C. Batten, Jr. to 12 years, 7 months in prison to be followed by five years of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $192,983.77 after pleading guilty to five counts of interference with commerce by robbery and armed robbery involving controlled substances. Williams pleaded guilty to these charges on August 3, 2021.
This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Carrollton Police Department, Gainesville Police Department, Fort Oglethorpe Police Department, Powder Springs Police Department, Summerville Police Department, Bartow-Cartersville Drug Task Force, and Rome Police Department with assistance from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and Rome/Floyd County Metro Task Force.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg prosecuted the case.