This morning in Charlotte County, Shamar Dameon Blair was sentenced as a Prison Releasee Reoffender, to two life sentences, for two counts of Robbery with a Firearm While Masked. The defendant was also sentenced to 30 years in prison for Attempted Robbery with a Firearm While Masked.
The defendant was convicted on Friday, following a jury trial prosecuted by Assistant State Attorneys Garrick Soja and Nolan Deming.
On May 1, 2019, the defendant went into a convenience store at the corner of Bayshore Road and Edgewater Drive in Port Charlotte. He walked into the store and jumped over the counter. He was waving a firearm, demanding, “Give me the money.” There were three employees in the store and the store had just opened.
Two employees were behind the counter, another in the freezer. The defendant was threatening two of them, at gunpoint, to open the cash register but neither knew how. He then robbed one of the employees of their personal items, as they lay close to the ground near each other.
The third employee then came up front from the freezer and they too were robbed at gunpoint. The Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office investigated the crime. That investigation led to the identification and arrest of the defendant, Shamar Blair.
The defendant has two pending cases in Charlotte County.
Samantha Syoen – Communications Director, State Attorney’s Office