Two men were each sentenced to more than a decade in in prison Wednesday for their roles in an armed Madison Heights home invasion.
Rashad Hillman, 20, of Altavista, was sentenced in Amherst County Circuit Court to 14 years in prison on two counts each of robbery and use of a firearm in commission of a felony and a single count of being a nonviolent felon in possession of a firearm.
His accomplice, Marcus Tolliver, 19, of Baltimore, was sentenced to 12 years on two counts each of robbery and use of a firearm in commission of a felony.
In a December plea hearing, Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Cary Payne said the men forced their way into a home on the 100 block of Sunset Drive on May 21.
Payne said a teenage girl was expecting her mother to come by the home, so when someone came to the back door, she opened it without looking. She found Hillman pointing a gun at her.
The girl was ordered to the ground, Payne said. Hillman and Tolliver took the girl’s brother into his bedroom and demanded drugs and money, the prosecutor said. They came away with $42.
Payne said the men hit the brother in the head and knocked him down. He tried to run away into a nearby field, but the men chased him and knocked him down again, Payne said.
When Hillman and Tolliver left their home, the girl and her brother ran out and recognized a boy in the getaway vehicle. They followed it and were able to flag down an Amherst County sheriff’s deputy, who stopped the van.
Pamela Austin, of Madison Heights, was convicted in December of being an accessory after the fact. She was the van’s driver. Her six-month sentence was suspended.
Meredith Kadeem-Lewis Austin, another van occupant who was 17 at the time, was convicted of two counts each of robbery and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.
Although he was tried and convicted as an adult, he was sentenced to the custody of the Department of Juvenile Justice last month until his 21st birthday.
Scott DeBruin, Hillman’s lawyer, said in a December hearing that he believed Meredith Austin had planned the robbery.
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