A North Georgia man was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison after he admitted to robbing multiple stores at gunpoint and making off with thousands of dollars in cash, authorities said.
A federal judge also ordered Giovanni Annucci-Romero to pay more than $30,000 in restitution to the three stores prosecutors said he robbed between January and May of last year, according to an indictment.
Annucci-Romero, 24, of Gainesville, was convicted on multiple counts May 19, just over a year after he was arrested in connection with the string of armed robberies in Gainesville and Cleveland, according to U.S. Attorney Kurt R. Erskine.
During the first of the incidents, which happened Jan. 23, 2020, Annucci-Romero walked into the Meeks Grocery store on Atlanta Highway in Gainesville armed with two handguns, the indictment said. The man threatened at least one employee with a firearm before stealing about $1,943, court records said.
The next day, Annucci-Romero robbed an Exxon Food Mart off Browns Bridge Road in Gainesville, the indictment said. On that occasion, he stole about $30,000.
He was arrested May 23, 2020, just hours after authorities said he committed another armed robbery at a Chevron on East Kytle Street in Cleveland. It is not clear how much he is believed to have taken from that gas station, but Erskine said Annucci-Romero was arrested in a vehicle “after the deputy saw him sitting on the cash he had just stolen.”
Annucci-Romero pleaded guilty to three counts of interference with commerce by threat or violence and one count of violent crime. Upon his release, he will serve four years of supervised release.
