Department of Justice

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Juarvez Reemos Juan Whitfield-Neeley, 25, of Toledo, was sentenced in U.S. District Court today to 121 months in prison for armed robbery.

According to court documents, in March 2020, Whitfield-Neeley shot three people during two separate robberies.

“For the sake of a few dollars, Whitfield-Neeley forever altered the life of at least three victims through gun violence,” said U.S. Attorney Kenneth L. Parker. “The resulting federal cases against him should send a clear message to Whitfield-Neeley and others that it is not worth it, and you will ultimately pay by serving time in federal prison.”

While robbing the Berkeley & Main Market in Columbus on March 15, 2020, he shot the store clerk in the back of the knee. A brief struggle ensued, and a gun in the clerk’s pocket fell to the floor. Whitfield-Neeley stole the clerk’s gun and fled.

Two weeks later, in Toledo, Whitfield-Neeley used the gun he had stolen from Columbus and fired several shots at two clerks in a corner store in Toledo. He shot both clerks in the torso, stole a gun from one of the injured clerks and took the cash from the register.

In June 2020, Whitfield-Neeley was charged in the Southern District of Ohio for the Columbus robbery and shooting. He was later taken into custody in the Northern District of Ohio, where he pleaded guilty to crimes associated with the Toledo robbery and was sentenced there to 207 months in prison. The defendant will serve his sentence for the Southern District of Ohio consecutively to the sentence he is already serving.

Kenneth L. Parker, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio; Daryl S. McCormick, Special Agent in Charge, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives (ATF); and Columbus Police Chief Elaine Bryant announced the sentence imposed by U.S. District Court Judge Edmund A. Sargus, Jr. Assistant U.S. Attorneys David J. Twombly and Elizabeth A. Geraghty are representing the United States in this case.

###