A Tampa man who terrorized a neighborhood shopping plaza during a pair of gunpoint robberies last year has been ordered to spend 27 years in federal prison, closing the book on a swift, surveillance-heavy investigation.
U.S. District Judge Steven Merryday handed down the 27-year sentence to Jose Rodriguez on Tuesday on robbery and firearm charges, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida. Prosecutors said Rodriguez first hit a pizza restaurant on August 4, 2024, then returned to the same plaza on September 11, 2024, to rob a cellphone store at gunpoint. Federal officials framed the case as part of Project Safe Neighborhoods, the Justice Department initiative that targets violent crime.
Workers at the pizza shop were not physically hurt when Rodriguez allegedly pulled a pistol and demanded cash, while witnesses at the cellphone store told investigators he warned employees, “Don’t move or I’ll shoot you,” before taking a relatively small amount of money and running, Tampa Free Press reported. Surveillance cameras from nearby businesses captured crucial angles of the robberies and the getaway car. Store owners in the plaza said the back-to-back stickups rattled staff and customers.
Investigation and evidence
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and deputies from the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office zeroed in on the suspect vehicle within 48 hours. Armed with that lead, they executed a federal search warrant at Rodriguez’s home. Investigators found a two-tone .45-caliber Kahr pistol inside, which a national database showed had been reported stolen from an elderly man in New Jersey, the press release states. Prosecutors said the match between the surveillance footage and the recovered gun helped lock in the conviction and the lengthy sentence…