Three brothers have been sentenced to federal prison for participating in a series of armed robberies across the D.C. area, including two in Fairfax County.
The last of the three, 41-year-old Andre Joel White Jr., received his sentence last Thursday (Aug. 7), bringing an end to the years-long scheme, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia announced.
Between Sept. 2023 and Feb. 2024, the trio carried out armed robberies at seven different stores in Virginia and Maryland, an FBI official said in an affidavit.
According to court documents, the two Fairfax County robberies both occurred at tobacco shops: one in Bailey’s Crossroads in December 2023, followed by another in Hybla Valley the following month.
On Dec. 4, 2023, White and his brothers Aaron White and Abdullah Michelle arrived at a Tobacco Mart just before 11 p.m. and robbed an employee at gunpoint. The victim had been counting the money in the register before closing when the three entered and demanded cash.
One of the suspects, who was armed with a handgun, took approximately $700 from the register before demanding that the employee open the store’s safe. The employee was unable to do so as he did not have access, according to court documents.
Simultaneously, the other two suspects swiped approximately 150 cartons of Newport cigarettes — carrying a value of $12,500 — and the employee’s cell phone before all three fled the property.
On Jan. 28, 2024, two of the brothers entered a Tobacco Bazaar in Hybla Valley around 8:45 p.m. and stole $220 from the store’s cash register, as well as a safe containing roughly $3,000, while armed with a handgun and “a small baseball bat or baton-style object.”
In the Hybla Valley heist, the suspects also swiped at least 25 cartons of Newport cigarettes — likely estimated at at least $2,000.
Following their arrests, each of the brothers pleaded guilty to a variety of charges, primarily brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence and conspiracy to interfere with commerce by robbery.
None of the three were specifically penalized for the armed robbery of a vehicle in D.C., according to court records, which was later used in the Bailey’s Crossroads heist.
Michelle received the largest penalty, getting sentenced to 21 years in federal prison on July 2. Aaron White was sentenced to 14 years on June 18.
After pleading guilty on Dec. 18, 2024, Andre White Jr. was sentenced last week to spend the next 10-and-a-half years behind bars.
