news-record.com

HIGH POINT (MCT) — A High Point man was sentenced to a federal prison term Tuesday in connection with a string of armed robberies.

At a hearing in U.S. District Court, Matthew Christopher Savoy received 40 years and 3 months behind bars after pleading guilty last year to his role in convenience store robberies in early 2008.

Savoy, 20, is one of four High Point men indicted by a federal grand jury last year on robbery and firearms-related offenses in connection with 10 robberies between Dec. 12, 2007 and Jan. 3, 2008 at businesses just off Business Interstate 85 in High Point, Thomasville and Lexington.

Savoy pleaded guilty to conspiracy to interfere with commerce by robbery and two counts of carrying and using a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence, court records show.

According to court documents, Savoy pleaded guilty to taking part in at least two of the robberies, both of which occurred Jan. 3, 2008.

The first took place at the Pantry Shop No. 5 at 500 National Highway in Thomasville. Savoy and a juvenile, both armed with guns, stole cash and cigarettes from the store. They also stole cash from the Green Market at 900 W. Green Drive in High Point later that evening.

Savoy is the third of the four defendants in the case to be sentenced. Ronnie Lee Covington Jr. and Marcel Orlando West, both 21, were sentenced to 21 years and 10 years in prison, respectively, in June. The final co-defendant, Keith Lauchon Jackson Jr., 20, has not been sentenced.

Jackson and Covington also face murder charges in state court in the October 2007 shooting death of 21-year-old Joshua Matthew Sweitzer at what was then the Lucky Mart convenience store in south High Point.