NORRISTOWN – A Pottstown man was jailed after admitting to robbing a Turkey Hill neighborhood store while armed with a knife.
Brian L. Missimer, 40, of the 800 block of North Washington Street, was sentenced in Montgomery District Court to serve 9 to 23 months in the county jail for aggravated robbery in connection with a June 2023 incident at the Turkey Hill supermarket on North Charlotte Street.
Judge Thomas M. DelRicci also ordered that Missimer spend three years on probation after his release from prison, meaning he will be under court supervision for approximately five years.
As a condition of the sentence, the judge ordered that Missimer not be allowed to enter the store in Turkey Hill.
The judge said court officials made an individual assessment and concluded that the sentence and conditions imposed on Missimer were necessary and represented the least restrictive means available to promote the defendant’s rehabilitation and protect the public.
Missimer pleaded guilty to robbery in May.
The investigation began on June 25, 2023, at approximately 7:53 p.m., when Pottstown police were called to the Turkey Hill store at 798 N. Charlotte St. on a report of an armed robbery, according to a criminal complaint filed by Pottstown police Officer Edward Nitka.
A store employee reported that a man wearing a hoodie, black gloves and a black face mask approached a cash register and, when asked if he was ready to pay, replied, “Yes, give me everything,” and then pulled out a large knife, the arrest affidavit states.
“(The victim) described the knife as a ‘military style’ knife and reported that it resembled a bayonet,” Nitka wrote in the criminal complaint.
After producing the knife, the suspect, later identified as Missimer, went behind the counter. The clerk opened the register and handed Missimer $328 in cash. He then fled the store into the alley behind the store to the south, police said.
Another store employee said the suspect was in the store about 20 minutes before the robbery, at which point he was not wearing a mask and was “walking around and then leaving without making a purchase,” according to court documents.
Police reviewed footage from the store’s surveillance cameras, which helped identify Missimer.
Two days later, a store employee reported to police that the suspect returned to the store, made a purchase, and paid for the item with a credit card. Police obtained the credit card number.
On June 29, police observed Missimer in traffic on East High Street. At the time, according to the affidavit, he was carrying a military-style knife and a credit card with numbers that matched the card used at Turkey Hill on June 27.
According to court documents, after his arrest, Missimer was subjected to an involuntary psychiatric evaluation and transported to Montgomery County Emergency Services in Norristown.
When police searched Missimer’s apartment, they found black gloves and clothing that matched the clothes he wore during the robbery.
Court documents show that Missimer requested that his case be heard in the District Mental Health Court, which handles the needs of people with serious mental health issues who are before the courts, but the request was denied due to the “nature of the offense,” specifically because it was a crime committed with a knife.
By pleading guilty to the robbery, Missimer admitted that he placed another person in fear of imminent bodily harm when committing the theft.
Other charges against Missimer, namely terroristic threats, possession of a murder weapon and possession of a prohibited offensive weapon, were dropped at the time of sentencing.
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