Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Earlier today, U.S. District Judge Max O. Cogburn, Jr. handed down a lengthy prison term to a Charlotte man involved in a 2014 armed robbery and carjacking, announced Jill Westmoreland Rose, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina. Judge Cogburn ordered Davonte Antonio Smith, 24, of Charlotte to serve 121 months in prison and two years of supervised release.

U.S. Attorney Rose is joined in making today’s announcement by C.J. Hyman, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), Charlotte Field Division and Chief Kerr Putney of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department.

According to filed court documents and court proceedings, on or about June 25, 2016, at approximately 8:30 p.m., Smith and a conspirator robbed and carjacked a victim in the parking lot of a Sam’s Mart, located in Charlotte, N.C. Court records show that Smith made arrangements to meet the victim to buy a pound of marijuana from him in exchange for $3,800. Court records show that Smith and his conspirator instead assaulted and robbed the victim at gunpoint, and Smith fled the scene in the victim’s vehicle. According to court records, Smith drove at high speeds to try to elude the police before being apprehended.

Smith pleaded guilty in May 2015 to one count armed robbery and one count of carjacking. In handing down the sentence today, Judge Cogburn stated that, "These violent crimes need to be stopped-must be stopped."

Smith is currently in custody and will be transferred to the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons upon designation of a federal facility. All federal sentences are served without the possibility of parole.

The investigation was handled by the ATF and CMPD. Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Gleason of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Charlotte was in charge of the prosecution.

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