Florida Man Gets 20 Years for Stealing Cigarettes

ABC NEWS – A Florida man who stole $600 worth of cigarettes from a convenience store has been sentenced to 20 years in state prison.

A jury in Pensacola convicted 48-year-old Robert Spellman of burglary and grand theft in August. Authorities say Spellman took 10 cartons of cigarettes from a stock room in the store manager’s office last December. He was sentenced Friday.

The Pensacola News Journal reports that Spellman had 14 felony and 31 misdemeanor convictions prior to the cigarette theft, which qualified him as a habitual felony offender. That led to the lengthy 20-year prison sentence imposed Friday by an Escambia County judge.

Damn! 20 years?! This case reminds me of the 3-Strikes Law in the 90s. Critics argued that the law was directly responsible for the mass incarceration of minorities, especially black men. To me, 20 years for $600 worth cigarettes is a bit extreme, but then again I am not familiar with his priors.

Hustlers, do you think this man should have been put away 20 years for this crime? I’m sure he wished he had those cartons in prison. I hear those things are golden in the bing.

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