‘Hoodie’ robber gets 13 life terms in prison
Abdul Howard, a career criminal known as the “Cinched Hoodie Robber,” was sentenced to 13 consecutive terms of life in federal prison Thursday for a series of armed convenience store robberies during a 2013 crime spree.
Howard, 49, who is awaiting trial in Clark County District Court on murder and sexual assault charges, shot a store clerk in the neck, seriously wounding him, in one of the robberies.
Chief U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro said she had “no problem” putting Howard behind bars for the rest of his life.
“You are an extremely dangerous man,” she told Howard, adding she wanted to make sure the impact on the victims of his crime spree was not forgotten.
Some of the victims will be dealing with the nightmare of encountering Howard for the rest of their lives, Navarro said.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Phillip Smith Jr. and Cristina Silva, who prosecuted Howard, sought the harsh sentence.
Howard, also known as Lesley Long, did not address Navarro to show remorse for his crimes, and he showed no emotion as the judge handed down the sentence.
“This defendant, who has a lengthy criminal history, terrorized convenience store employees in Las Vegas over a four-month period during 2013, and it is fortunate that no one was killed,” Nevada U.S. Attorney Daniel Bogden said after the sentencing. “With his federal sentence of life in prison, Mr. Howard’s violent crime reign on Nevada streets and in our community is now over and done.”
After an 11-day federal trial, Howard was convicted in June of all 27 counts stemming from 14 armed robberies during the crime spree. One of the robberies occurred at a small casino. The jury found him guilty of 14 felony counts of interference with commerce by robbery, 12 counts of possession of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence and one count of a felon in possession of a firearm.
Howard has felony convictions in Nevada, New York and Florida dating to 1980.
He is waiting to be tried in District Court on a series of violent crime charges stemming from the sexual assault and slaying of a 64-year-old woman and the robbery and sexual assault of a 79-year-old woman.
During his federal trial, Howard didn’t make it easy on federal marshals to take court-ordered photographs of him wearing a hooded sweatshirt found at the scene of one of the robberies he was accused of committing.
Prosecutors ended up presenting the jury with photos of the multiple felon sticking his tongue out and making faces with the hoodie cinched around his head.
Navarro had ordered marshals to forcibly take the photos after Howard refused to voluntarily be photographed wearing the key evidence in the case.
Prosecutors made the unusual photo request as part of an effort in court to identify Howard as the man they allege committed the crimes.
They wanted the jury to compare the photos with previous photos taken from surveillance videos of the suspect wearing the hooded sweatshirt.
Contact Jeff German at jgerman@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-8135. Find him on Twitter: @JGermanRJ
