Raleigh man sentenced for series of armed robberies during crime spree
A federal judge this week sentenced a 60-year-old man to more than 14 years in prison for a series of armed robberies and also a carjacking.
James Daniel Bloodworth of Raleigh was sentenced to 175 months behind bars, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina announced Wednesday afternoon.
Bloodworth committed the offenses between June 14-16, 2017, according to a news release. He
On June 14, 2017, Bloodworth was armed with a handgun when he walked into a CVS in Raleigh, approached an employee behind the counter and demanded cash. He threatened to shoot the employee if she did not comply, and he left with $200.
The next day Bloodworth walked into a Walgreens in Cary and asked an employee for a pack of cigarettes. When the employee reached the cash register, Bloodworth retrieved a gun, pointed it at the employee and took cigarettes and $400 from the cash register, prosecutors say.
Police also charged Bloodworth with robbing at least three Raleigh businesses on June 12, 2017.
The crime spree ended on June 16, 2017, when Bloodworth walked up to a woman getting out of her Toyota Camry at South Wilmington and East Davie streets in downtown Raleigh. Prosecutors say Bloodworth pressed a handgun to the woman’s back, threatened to kill her if she screamed and ordered her to drop her car keys before he drove off in her car.
The following day a Durham patrol officer saw a Nissan Xterra that had been reported stolen and tried to stop it in the 2100 block of Liberty Street, police said. Bloodworth, who was behind the wheel, drove through Woodlawn Memorial Cemetery and damaged gravestones.
Durham officers turned Bloodworth over to Raleigh police at the Wake County-Durham County line on Glenwood Avenue.
A federal grand jury on Jan. 31 returned a six-count indictment against Bloodworth. Although he was initially charged with four counts of armed robbery, he pleaded guilty on July 9 to two counts of interference with commerce by robbery and carjacking.
Bloodworth had ended parole roughly two weeks before his arrest. He had been on parole after serving almost 13 years in prison for armed robberies in Durham in 2006, according to state records.
This story was originally published October 31, 2018 at 6:30 PM.