According to the Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office, “This week, in the Circuit Court for Montgomery County, MD, the Honorable Michael McAuliffe sentenced defendant, Terry Tompkins, 42, of Temple Hills, to 15 years in prison suspend all but four years to serve and five years of probation upon release. Tompkins pleaded guilty on December 19th, 2022, to one count of robbery and three counts of theft stemming from four incidents at hardware stores in June and July of 2022. The sentencing hearing was held on Wednesday, October 10th.
In one of the incidents, on July 30th, 2022, Tompkins exited the Ace Hardware store in the 800 block of Wayne Avenue in Silver Spring, with a cart full of copper wire and other electric cable products without paying for the items. He then attacked a store employee who attempted to film him on a cell phone. Tomkins stole the phone as he fled.
Tompkins was charged in five separate Maryland counties with over a dozen total thefts from hardware stores during the summer of 2022. In December 2022, after he plead guilty to the Montgomery County charges, he committed additional thefts in multiple counties while out on bond pending sentencing. Judge McAulliffe noted these additional thefts as reason for imposing a sentence at the top of the Maryland sentencing guidelines.
Assistant State’s Attorney Kyle O’Grady handled prosecution of this case. We thank Montgomery County Police Detectives Sean Petty and Jesse Dickensheets for their thorough investigation, linking Tompkins to numerous thefts.”