Man sentenced for several dollar store robberies in 2014

Published 9:37 pm Friday, August 4, 2017

GULFPORT (AP) — A man who was accused of robbing a string of dollars stores in Mississippi has been sentenced.

The Sun Herald reports 32-year-old Joseph Towner Jr. was sentenced to 32 years in prison Wednesday for robbing five Dollar General and Family Dollar stores in 2014. The prison sentence includes time for using a gun in crimes of violence.

In a guilty plea in March, Towner admitted he robbed the stores over a three-month period. The robberies happened in Biloxi, D’Iberville, Gulfport and Long Beach.

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At a particular robbery of a Gulfport Family Dollar, two workers reported that two armed men were wearing MorphSuit-style masks — skintight spandex — and demanded that they open a safe. Judge Sul Ozerden ordered Towner to pay nearly $14,000 to the stores and a $20,000 fine.