GREENWOOD, Ind. — A judge sentenced an Indianapolis man Thursday for a string of crimes related to the robbery of a Greenwood tobacco shop in June of 2017.
Jameson McCarthy agreed to a plead guilty to five charges:
- Robbery resulting in serious bodily injury (30-year sentence)
- Armed robbery (12-year sentence)
- Criminal confinement (14-year sentence)
- Possession of a firearm by a serious violent felon (10-year sentence)
- Resisting law enforcement with a vehicle (2.5-year sentence)
McCarthy will spend as many as 42 years behind bars. The robbery sentences will run consecutively, while the rest of the sentences will run concurrent to those. The 30-year sentence for robbery resulting in a serious bodily injury is the maximum possible under the law.
"While as a matter of law Mr. McCarthy is entitled to some level of mitigation for accepting responsibility for his crimes and pleading guilty, based on his history and the facts of this case I required him to plead to the maximum penalty for this highest level charge because that is what was appropriate," said Johnson County Prosecutor Joe Villanueva.
At the time of the robbery, McCarthy had three previous armed robbery convictions dating back to 2011. He was also convicted of attempted armed robbery in another incident that took place the same day as the tobacco shop robbery. He's currently serving a 10-year sentence in that case.
McCarthy's arrest from the day of the tobacco store robbery went viral on social media after he fell off the roof of a van when police tased him.
NOTE: The video below may not be appropriate for all audiences.
A worker at the store said McCarthy robbed the business at gunpoint. Police said during the robbery, the clerk was pistol-whipped and the robbery suspect stole a customer's van.
Police said they located the stolen van and chased it into the Whispering Trails neighborhood where the suspect drove through yards and almost hit other cars and houses. That's when McCarthy revealed a gun to police.
He hit another vehicle and then crashed into a pole. McCarthy then climbed out of the window and onto the roof of the van where police confronted him. Officers shocked McCarthy with a Taser, which resulted in a head-first fall off the van onto the ground below.
