Orlando Man Sentenced to 32 Years for Armed Robbery of CVS and Armed Carjacking

Tampa, FL — United States Attorney Robert E. O’Neill announces that Miguel Torres (32, Orlando) was sentenced today by Senior United States District Judge Susan C. Bucklew to 32 years in federal prison for the armed robbery of a Tampa CVS Pharmacy and a subsequent armed carjacking in November 2010. Torres pled guilty on November 2, 2011.

According to court documents, on November 17, 2010, Torres and his accomplice Joshua Wilkes entered a CVS Pharmacy in Tampa to commit an armed robbery. Upon entering the store, they ordered customers and employees to the floor. Wilkes was brandishing a firearm and hit the female pharmacy manager in the head with the same during the robbery. After committing the robbery, Wilkes and Torres fled the area in a truck.

Officers with the Tampa Police Department (TPD) pursued the truck. During the pursuit, the suspects were involved in a wreck and then carjacked a female at gunpoint. Wilkes and Torres forced the victim out of her vehicle and fled north in her car on Interstate 75. Wilkes and Torres later carjacked another vehicle from a second female victim and continued to flee using her vehicle. Wilkes was apprehended the following day by the Orlando Police Department. Torres was arrested on September 8, 2011.

Last week Judge Bucklew sentenced Wilkes to more than 44 years in federal prison for his role in the armed robbery and armed carjacking.

This case was investigated by the Tampa Police Department, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office and the Orlando Police Department. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Colleen Murphy Davis.

It is another case prosecuted as a part of the Department of Justice’s “Project Safe Neighborhoods” program – a nationwide, gun–violence reduction strategy led by ATF. United States Attorney Robert E. O’Neill, along with Virginia O’Brien, Special Agent in Charge, ATF, is coordinating the Project Safe Neighborhoods effort here in the Middle District of Florida in cooperation with federal, state, and local law enforcement officials.