Crime & Safety

Radio Shack Robber Gets 5 Years in Prison

With credit for time served, Marquez Hicks will serve a little more than four years for the August robbery.

A man who admitted to robbing the Radio Shack in Belmont last August has been sentenced to five years in prison.

Marquez Hicks, 33, had just been assigned to a jury trial when, at the end of March, he changed his mind and pleaded no contest to robbery with the enhancement of use of a deadly weapon in connection with the Aug. 28 incident, according to the San Mateo County District Attorney's Office.

The plea deal, which also factors in Hicks' prior prison time, meant he faced a maximum of seven years in prison.

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A San Mateo County Superior Court judge on Thursday sentenced Hicks to five years in prison with credit for serving 304 days.

Prosecutors said Hicks entered the Radio Shack at 870 Ralston Ave. the morning of Aug. 28 and used a box cutter to begin removing a digital camera from its plastic wrap.

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The 22-year-old female clerk then approached Hicks and told him to stop, according to the San Mateo County District Attorney's Office.

But Hicks instead held the box cutter to the woman's neck and told her not to tell anyone and pretend the incident never happened, prosecutors said.

He then fled the store, but police found him nearby with the box cutter and a stolen phone, prosecutors said. He was promptly arrested.

Hicks had remained in custody in lieu of $50,000 bail while his trial date had been pushed back once in October.


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