A 19-year-old who put the city of Salem under what prosecutors called a 鈥渞eign of terror鈥 was sentenced Thursday to 13 years in prison.
鈥淭his is an awful case,鈥 Circuit Judge David Carson told Bradley Michael Poff, who abducted, robbed and stole from people at random, throwing their daily routines into chaos the morning of Sept. 18.
Poff
The one-day crime spree unnerved the city as dozens of police officers searched for a masked suspect, believed to be armed and dangerous, while schools were placed on lockdown.
鈥淚t鈥檚 the terror he put the city through, based on his actions, that brings us here today,鈥 Deputy Commonwealth鈥檚 Attorney Matt Pollard said at a combined sentencing hearing for Poff鈥檚 crimes in Salem and 麻花视频 County.
According to evidence presented earlier, when Poff pleaded no contest, this is what happened:
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At about 7 a.m., a white Nissan Pathfinder was stolen after the owner left it idling to warm up at the Riverside Mobile Home Park.
A short time later, a student waiting at a bus stop in the Cave Spring area was robbed of a cellphone by someone driving a Pathfinder, wearing a black mask, and brandishing an Airsoft pistol and a knife.
Back in Salem, at about 8:40 a.m., a man of the same description approached a nurse in the parking lot of LewisGale Medical Center and demanded that she give him her purse. She escaped by running to a stairwell.
Minutes later, the assailant approached his next victim: a mother who had parked her Audi outside a nearby CVS Pharmacy. The woman left her 5-year-old son, who is autistic and nonverbal, in the car as she went inside to get a drink.
The suspect abandoned the Pathfinder and stole the Audi, apparently unaware that a child was in the back seat. The boy was left on a sidewalk in a nearby industrial area by the suspect, who then sped off.
Police spotted the vehicle and began a pursuit that ended back at the Riverside Mobile Home Park, where the driver jumped out and ran into a heavily wooded area.
The next day, police used data from the stolen cellphone to locate and arrest Poff, then 18, at his father鈥檚 home in Salem.
鈥淎ny one of these crimes would be serious,鈥 Carson said. 鈥淭aken together, it is the kind of spree that this court has not seen.鈥
In tears, the mother of the abducted child testified that she still gets flashbacks of how she walked out of the drug store to find her car 鈥 and her child 鈥 missing.
Nearly a year later, 鈥渁 simple trip to the gas station 鈥 it can give me a panic attack,鈥 she testified. 鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 just go away for me, because it was very scary.鈥
Poff, who became addicted to alcohol and drugs at a young age and was on probation from juvenile court at the time of offenses, did not testify.
But in a handwritten letter introduced as evidence, he apologized to his victims.
鈥淚 was not in the right mind when these things took place,鈥 he wrote, recounting how he had used cocaine, methamphetamine and Xanax in the hours before. 鈥淚 did not mean nobody no harm at all and am sorry for my actions.鈥
Defense attorney Neil Horn asked Carson to place his client in the Department of Corrections鈥 Youthful Offender Program, which offers alternative prison settings for offenders aged 18 to 21.
鈥淚f you send this 19-year-old into the adult prison system, they are going to tear him apart,鈥 he said of Poff, a diminutive figure who sat silently in an orange jail jumpsuit.
Carson imposed a 48-year prison sentence, to be suspended after Poff serves 13 years, on charges of abduction, child neglect, eluding police, two counts of robbery and two counts of grand larceny.
Although all but one of the crimes happened in Salem, 麻花视频 County Assistant Commonwealth鈥檚 Attorney Nate Griffith asked Carson not to overlook the robbery of the Cave Spring student.
鈥淭here is no crime-spree discount given,鈥 Griffith said.
