A Houston man was sentenced to 84 months in federal prison this week for his role as the getaway driver in an armed robbery of a Victoria supermarket carried out on Halloween night 2023. Jordan Javon Ashton, 28, was convicted of armed robbery and being a felon in possession of a firearm, and will serve three years of supervised release once his prison term ends.
According to fox26houston.com, the case stems from an Oct. 31, 2023 robbery of Morelos Supermercados in Victoria, carried out by Latrayveon McNeal and Jerrell Potts. Ashton's role, prosecutors said, was to drive the pair away from the scene once the robbery was over.
The station reported that Ashton left the stolen truck idling in the middle of the road as he sped off with the other participants. That detail became a key piece of evidence prosecutors used to tie Ashton directly to the crime, rather than treating him as a bystander.
Jury Took Less Than Two Hours to Convict
Ashton's case went to trial and a jury found him guilty on Feb. 20 after deliberating for less than two hours following a three-day trial, per the same account. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Texas separately confirmed that a jury reached its guilty verdict after deliberating for less than two hours following the three-day trial, according to justice.gov.
That federal announcement also identified the total sentence handed down as 84 months of imprisonment, matching the term reported locally, per justice.gov. Beyond the prison term and the supervised release period, the underlying case record — including a case number, sentencing judge, or prosecutor names — was not detailed in the available reporting.
Co-Defendants Already Sentenced
Ashton was not the only person charged in the Victoria robbery. McNeal, 27, and Potts, 25, both of Houston, previously pleaded guilty to their roles in the crime and each received 87 months in federal prison, the outlet's report notes.
That means both men who directly carried out the robbery ultimately received slightly longer sentences than the getaway driver who helped them flee. The station's report does not offer further explanation for the sentencing gap between Ashton and his two co-defendants.
The case was first publicized this week by the US Attorney SDTX
, the Houston-based U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Texas, which posted about the sentencing on social media. With sentencing now complete for all three men charged in the Halloween night robbery, the case appears closed on the federal side, though further procedural details were not available in the reporting reviewed.
