A Houston-area man who was more tempted to rob cell phone stores than freedom has been sent back to prison for a series of crimes he committed just months after being released from prison for another robbery.
Quantez Whiteside, 25, pleaded guilty on Feb. 20 to a three-day robbery spree in 2021 that occurred just months after he was released from prison for another robbery, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas Alamdar S. Hamdani said in a news release.
“As this spree continued, the robber became careless and left behind his cell phone number, which essentially served as a lead for investigators that led him straight to him,” Hamdani said in the press release. “Obviously, the two years he previously spent in a federal prison were not enough to deter him from committing these crimes. With today’s sentencing, he will have ample opportunity to reflect on his actions and the damaging impact they had on the victims.”
U.S. District Judge Kenneth M. Hoyt sentenced Whiteside to six years in a federal prison for three counts of obstruction of public commerce by robbery and 14 years in prison for two counts of using, carrying and brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence.
The sentences are served one after the other.
Whiteside also received an additional 18 months in prison for committing the crimes while on federal probation for a previous robbery conviction, which sentence must also be served consecutively.
His total of 21.5 years in prison will be immediately followed by three years probation.
When announcing the verdict, the judge stated that robbery was not an appropriate way to provide for one’s family.
Authorities said Whiteside violently stole cell phones and U.S. currency from three different Metro by T-Mobile (formerly Metro PCS) stores in the greater Houston area during his robbery spree.
Six months earlier, he had been released from federal prison, where he was serving a two-year sentence for the 2018 robbery of a Domino’s Pizza delivery driver.
On January 25, 2021, officials said that during a robbery at a Metro by T-Mobile store on West Bellfort Road, Whiteside pointed a gun at employees, ordered them to get on the ground, and verbally threatened to kill them if they did not obey. He left the store with about 30 stolen cell phones and money.
Two days later, on Jan. 27, Whiteside entered a Metro by T-Mobile store on Bissonnet Street, pointed a gun at employees and forced them to put their phones in a pink backpack he was carrying, the press release said.
Thirty minutes later, Whiteside entered another Metro by T-Mobile store on Beechnut Street and told an employee he wanted to purchase a phone. He then gave the employee his cell phone number. The employee entered the information into a computer before Whiteside fled with the stolen items.
The phone number was linked to Whiteside’s registered customer account, which led investigators to his home. Authorities found cell phones, firearms and the pink backpack, the news release said.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Houston Police Department investigated the case, which was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Carrie Wirsing.
