Fort Myers man gets 28 years in federal prison for I-75 convenience store robbery spree

A Fort Myers man who robbed five convenience stores at gunpoint along Interstate 75 in a four-day span in September 2025 has been sentenced to 28 years in federal prison, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Florida announced on Oct. 6. Javion Ward, 22, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Steven D. Merryday in Tampa after pleading guilty in June to conspiracy to commit Hobbs Act robbery and possessing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence.

The robberies stretched across four counties on the Gulf Coast and in Central Florida: Hillsborough, Manatee, Sarasota and Sumter. All of the targeted stores sat close to I-75, the corridor that links Ward's home in Lee County to Tampa Bay. According to court documents summarized by federal prosecutors, Ward personally robbed five stores and helped a co-conspirator attempt to rob a sixth. The judge also ordered him to forfeit the firearm used in the crimes.

What prosecutors say happened

The case began with a federal criminal complaint filed in September 2025 against Ward and Taleah Williams, then both 21 and both from Lee County. Williams lived in North Fort Myers. The complaint alleged that Williams devised a plan to rob stores near the interstate and supplied the vehicle and the firearm the pair used, and that she drove Ward to the stores. Those are allegations against Williams; she has not been convicted, and her case remains pending in federal court, according to WGCU's report on the sentencing.

According to the government's account, the spree opened on Sept. 16, 2025, when Ward walked into a Tampa convenience store, brandished a pistol, demanded money and left with about $600. The next day, prosecutors alleged, Williams tried to rob a gas station in Lake Panasoffkee in Sumter County using the same firearm but fled without getting any money.

The heaviest night came in the early morning hours of Sept. 19, 2025. Prosecutors said Ward hit four stores in a row moving south down the I-75 corridor: Gibsonton in Hillsborough County, Ellenton in Manatee County, and Nokomis and North Port in Sarasota County. In each, he entered with a gun and demanded cash from the clerk. In Gibsonton, he jumped over the counter in an attempt to reach the safe. In Ellenton, according to the charging documents, he threatened to pistol whip the employee if the clerk did not move faster.

The following table lays out the sequence federal prosecutors described.

How investigators closed the case

The break came quickly and, according to federal prosecutors, from the suspects themselves. A few hours after the last robbery on Sept. 19, Williams posted photos on social media showing herself and Ward, with Ward holding cash in both hands, the complaint said. Law enforcement executed a search warrant at Williams' residence on Sept. 20, 2025, and recovered clothing that matched what was worn during the robberies, according to the government's account.

The investigation drew in the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and local police and sheriff's offices in the affected counties. Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael R. Kenneth prosecuted the case. Federal prosecutors brought it as part of Project Safe Neighborhoods, the Justice Department program that pairs federal, state and local agencies to target violent crime, particularly gun crime.

When the complaint was announced in September 2025, the Middle District of Florida was led by U.S. Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe. At that stage both defendants were charged with Hobbs Act robbery, which carries a maximum of 20 years in federal prison.

Why the sentence is so long

The 28 year sentence reflects the way federal law stacks gun charges on top of robbery charges. The Hobbs Act, which makes it a federal crime to obstruct commerce by robbery, carries a maximum of 20 years per count, including conspiracy. The second count Ward admitted, possessing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence under 18 U.S.C. 924(c), carries a mandatory minimum prison term that must be served consecutively to, not at the same time as, any sentence for the underlying robbery. The statutory floor is five years, rising to seven when the gun is brandished, and the maximum is life.

There is no parole in the federal system. Defendants can earn limited good conduct credit, which means a federal prisoner typically serves at least about 85 percent of the term imposed. For Ward, who was 21 at the time of the robberies, that translates to more than two decades behind bars.

Convenience store robberies are routinely prosecuted in state court in Florida, where armed robbery with a firearm is a first-degree felony punishable by up to life. The Middle District of Florida, which covers Tampa, Fort Myers, Orlando and Jacksonville, has increasingly brought Hobbs Act cases against people accused of robbery sprees that cross county lines. Federal court allows one prosecutor's office to charge conduct that would otherwise be split among several state attorneys. In this case, the robberies fell within at least three judicial circuits: the 13th in Hillsborough, the 12th in Manatee and Sarasota, and the 5th in Sumter.

Case milestones

The case moved from arrest to sentencing in a little more than a year. The key steps are listed below.

The impact along the I-75 corridor

The stores targeted in the spree are the kind of late-night businesses that dot the exits of I-75 between Tampa and North Port, often staffed by a single clerk on overnight shifts. The Sept. 19 robberies came in quick succession in the early morning hours, a pattern that left clerks in three counties confronting an armed robber within a short window.

For Southwest Florida, the case was notable because both defendants lived in Lee County yet none of the robberies happened there. The interstate gave the pair, according to prosecutors, quick access to stores far from home, in jurisdictions where local detectives would not immediately connect one robbery to the next. The federal case tied the incidents together through a common firearm, matching clothing and, ultimately, the social media photos.

What's next

Ward will be committed to the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons to serve his sentence. Federal sentences in the Middle District typically also include a term of supervised release after prison.

The case against Williams has not been resolved. She is presumed innocent unless and until she pleads guilty or is convicted at trial. Prosecutors have not announced a plea agreement or trial date for her in the public summaries of the case. Any change in her status would be reflected in the federal docket in the Middle District of Florida.