Gunpoint robber of 7-Eleven sent to prison
NORRISTOWN >> Saying a Cheltenham man appears to live in “an alternate universe,” a judge sent the man to prison and recommended he receive mental health treatment after he admitted to robbing a Springfield 7-Eleven store at gunpoint.
“I think he’s detached from reality,” Montgomery County Judge Thomas C. Branca said as he sentenced Eric Bartholomew Xibos to 4 to 8 years in a state correctional facility in connection with the Nov. 7, 2018, gunpoint holdup of the 7-Eleven along the 1000 block of East Willow Grove Avenue in Springfield.
Branca said statements Xibos made to presentence investigators, including that he was shot at in the past and witnessed friends being shot, had no basis in fact and that there was no information to support such claims. Xibos, according to testimony, told authorities he kept a gun for protection because he’s seen people get shot. Xibos’s mother told the judge she was unaware that her son ever experienced such things.
“There is, in my view, a tremendous disconnect between reality and this young man. He lives in an alternate universe,” said Branca. “There is no indication he was exposed to these things.”
Branca recommended Xibos, 19, of the 400 block of West Glenside Avenue, receive mental health evaluations while in state prison and he ordered Xibos to comply with any recommendations for treatment. The judge warned Xibos that if he is dishonest with those who try to help him that he will only prolong his period of incarceration.
The judge added Xibos, who pleaded guilty to felony charges of robbery and carrying a firearm without a license, also must complete four years’ probation following parole, meaning Xibos will be under court supervision for 12 years.
“The crime, obviously, is very serious. The threat to the victims was very serious,” Branca said.
Two clerks at the store testified they feared for their lives when a man wearing a black mask and a hoodie and brandishing a gun robbed the store at about 8:54 p.m. and then fled on foot.
“At that moment it was rather surreal. ‘Is this really happening? Is that really a gun?’” one of the victims recalled thinking at the time.
The man testified that despite the terror he felt, he courageously returned to work the next day because he had a family to support.
“What’s scarier than a guy with a gun? It’s bills. I need to work,” the clerk testified.
The second clerk who was in the store during the holdup testified the experience was “shocking and scary.”
Court documents indicated Xibos got away with less than $50.
“I’m sorry and I apologize to the victims. I messed up and I made a mistake. I’m sorry for what I did,” Xibos said in court before learning his fate.
After the robbery, Xibos, who was 18 at the time, fled in a vehicle at a high rate of speed before crashing into another vehicle on Queen Street and then fleeing on foot. Authorities alleged Xibos also used the gun to threaten witnesses who were trying to assist him after the vehicle crash.
Police subsequently caught up with Xibos in the 1300 block of Mermaid Lane where he was taken into custody, according to a criminal complaint filed by Springfield Detective Stephen P. Craig.
Police confiscated a .45-caliber pistol, loaded with one round in the chamber, as they traced Xibos’s escape route.
“That gun was ready to be used that night,” said Assistant District Attorney Tanner Beck, who argued for a prison term of 4 to 10 years against Xibos. “That gun was pointed right in the face of someone that night, a convenience store clerk, who was placed in fear of serious bodily injury that night. He put multiple people at risk that night.”
Testimony revealed Xibos is awaiting sentencing for another robbery of a Philadelphia business, a crime that occurred two weeks before the Springfield robbery.
“It’s really two robberies in a very short time,” Tanner argued.
Defense lawyer Philip Steinberg argued for a mitigated sentence for Xibos, claiming Xibos abused narcotics, had some mental health issues and was immature at the time of the incident. Xibos, Steinberg argued, also cooperated with authorities after his arrest and expressed remorse.
“He was just 18 at the time of this offense. This is a kid who needs discipline,” said Steinberg, who wished Xibos could be made eligible for the state Department of Corrections’ boot camp program.
However, under state guidelines, the militarystyle, prison boot camp was not an option for sentencing purposes because of the violent nature of Xibos’s crime, testimony revealed.
During heartfelt testimony, Xibos’s mother described her son as “hardworking, loving and respectful” and said he made a “horrible mistake.”
“I don’t know what happened. Eric was not raised to do this. He was raised to work hard. I apologize for my son’s behavior,” Xibos’s mother told the judge.