A Lexington Park man has been sentenced to four years in jail for violation of probation on an armed robbery conviction. St. Mary’s County Circuit Court Judge Karen Abrams on Friday sentenced Timothy Brooks, 22, after a sentencing and violation of probation hearing.
Brooks was found guilty of theft of under $1,000 during a jury trial on January 8. He was found not guilty of the more serious crime of armed robbery. But the guilty conviction, plus another infraction caused the judge to find that Brooks had indeed violated the probation of the previous armed robbery conviction and imposed the back-up time of four years.
Judge Abrams also imposed a one year sentence on the theft conviction, made it concurrent with the probation violation sentence, and made both effective from May of last year. Brooks has been incarcerated since then.
During the hearing Assistant State’s Attorney Joseph Stanalonis noted that Brooms has had a long criminal history, including ten contacts with the juvenile justice system. “He has not demonstrated that he is a candidate for probation,” Stanalonis said.
Stanalonis also said that the other defendants in the case involving a robbery in May of 2010 do not corroborate Brooks’ assertion that he was just a drug buyer and not involved in the robbery.
Brooks’ attorney Public Defender Sean Moran did ask for probation in his argument. “He made a couple of bad decisions,” the attorney said, adding that his client needed help in being a productive member of the community.
Judge Abrams told Brooks, “I thought you were a pretty nice guy and you were smart. Obviously you are not. It is very sad and very unfortunate.” The judge noted that the admission of being involved in buying drugs was enough evidence that he violated his probation on the previous case, for which he was incarcerated on a four-year sentence.
Judge Abrams did say that Brooks could get drug treatment and take college courses while incarcerated.
