Armed Teen Robbers 15 & 7 Years in Jail for Punching Subway Employee
CANTON, Sylvester A. Gadsden apologized, but it’s not enough to make one of his victims forget how he treated her on March 4 2009.
“Everyday I still relive the robbery,” said the woman, who was working in the Subway restaurant at 1314 Market Ave. N when Gadsden and 17-year-old Tevin N. Burnett robbed her at gunpoint.
“I just hope that he thinks about the decision that he made and how it affected so many people,” the woman said, battling tears, in Stark County Common Pleas Judge Lee Sinclair’s courtroom.
Gadsden, of 912 Seventh St. NW, pleaded guilty to three counts of aggravated robbery while using a weapon. Sinclair sentenced him to 15 years in prison.
CASE CLOSED:
He’s the last of 4 people charged with the robbery to enter a guilty plea and be sentenced to prison.
Burnett, of 2412 Eighth St. NE, pleaded guilty Wednesday and received seven years in prison.
Tevin Burnett, 17, also pleaded “true” this morning in Stark County Family Court to raping an 8-year-old boy two years ago.
Burnett’s sentence was less because he agreed to testify against Gadsden, said Assistant Stark County Prosecutor Kristen Mlinar.
Burnett also behaved less violently during the robbery than Gadsden, Mlinar said.
During the hearing, Gadsden indicated he knew that Burnett would testify against him.
“It’s a lose-lose situation, so I’d just rather plead guilty,” Gadsden told Sinclair.
Gadsden and Burnett, both wearing ski masks, went into the store carrying what appeared to be automatic weapons and jumped over the counter.
They ordered one worker to empty a cash register and demanded the other open the safe.
When she didn’t, one of the robbers punched the worker twice in the head.
MOM CONTACTS POLICE:
About 10 days after the robbery, police released security camera footage with the hope someone would identify the robbers.
As it turned out, Burnett’s mother called police, Assistant Stark County Prosecutor Aaron Howell said.
The tip led police to Burnett and Gadsden, as well as Kyle Ballard, 24, of 908 Fifth St. NW, and Devon R. Merriweather, 19, of 815 Shorb Ave. NW.
Ballard and Merriweather both pleaded guilty to complicity to aggravated robbery and received three-year prison sentences.
Merriweather was charged for driving Gadsden and Burnett to Subway, knowing they planned to rob the restaurant.
Ballard was charged for waiting in the getaway car.
The store employee said she hopes Gadsden realizes how his actions affected so many people, including her children who now worry about their mother when she goes to work.
The woman said she spent several weeks not working following the robbery but has returned.
Gadsden apologized after the store employee addressed the court, saying he was sorry for physical injuries or mental anguish the restaurant employees might have experienced.
