A man who is facing the maximum 20-year sentence for robbing a Chattanooga Cash Express of $2,680 asked a federal judge this week to impose less prison time based upon factors including his upbringing and misfortune.
As part of a plea deal, Imari Glover pleaded guilty to unlawfully obstructing, delaying and affecting interstate commerce by committing a robbery March 7, 2020, but there was no agreed upon sentence.
After Glover pleaded guilty, he was recommended for a minimum sentence of nearly 20 years based on an investigation report — five months less than the maximum prison term, a sentencing memorandum shows.
He is asking the court to grant a sentence below the determined guideline.
Glover wanted it taken into account that his father was not involved in his upbringing and he was stabbed while in a detention center in Ocilla, Georgia, the memorandum states.
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Glover’s father was killed by his girlfriend, and Glover was taken into state custody for a majority of his childhood after his mother was accused of severely abusing his youngest sibling.
“Mr. Glover had virtually no chance to develop any sense of normalcy or appropriate value structures,” the memorandum states.
In addition, he allegedly experienced misfortune during his current period of incarceration.
An inmate stabbed him multiple times in the back in 2022 while he was showering, and he experiences frequent nightmares from which he wakes up screaming due to flashbacks, the memorandum states.
Certain elements of Glover’s crime and the subsequent investigation were allegedly improperly used to determine his guideline imprisonment range, too, his attorney, Dan Ripper, said in the memorandum.
For example, Glover allegedly accepted responsibility for the crime but was denied a sentence reduction for doing so, Ripper said.
On the day of the robbery, Glover’s accomplice, Shelby Beam, entered a Cash Express at 7431 E. Brainerd Road under the guise of applying for a loan, his plea agreement states. Beam eventually let Glover in. Glover burst into the store and leapt over the counter with a pistol.
“He placed the store clerk in a choke hold, pointed the gun at her and demanded that she open the safe so he could steal the money from the store, which he did,” the plea states.
He is scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday at Chattanooga’s Joel W. Solomon Federal Building and Courthouse. Beam is expected to be sentenced Sept. 4 in connection with the robbery.
Contact Sofia Saric at ssaric@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6476.