A 43-year-old man who held a gun to a customer's head during a 2019 convenience store robbery in Winston-Salem has been sentenced to 35 years in federal prison. Todd Albert Lawton was sentenced Monday to 420 months behind bars, followed by five years of supervised release, by U.S. District Judge David A. Bragdon.
According to the FBI - Charlotte, the sentence followed a joint investigation between the FBI and the Winston-Salem Police Department. Federal prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of North Carolina say Lawton's sentence breaks down into 240 months for interference with commerce by robbery under federal law, plus a mandatory consecutive 180 months for brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence.
A Gun to the Back of a Customer's Head
The robbery took place at approximately 2:05 a.m. on March 30, 2019, at the Family Fare BP convenience store at 1427 West First Street in Winston-Salem, per the same office's account. Lawton approached a customer from behind and held a gun to the back of the man's head before turning the weapon on the store clerk to demand cash and access to the safe.
He made off with cash from the register, several boxes of Black & Mild cigars, and a can of beer. But Winston-Salem Police Department officers arrested him just minutes later nearby, with all of the stolen items still in his possession, the report notes.
A Record Stretching Back to 2002
Lawton, who is originally from Washington, D.C., has a criminal record dating back to 2002 that includes felony convictions for robbery, felony assault on a federal officer, possession of a contraband weapon as a federal inmate, and felony cocaine distribution, according to the prosecutors' account. That history played into the length of his federal sentence.
Federal law explains why the punishment stacked up so steeply. Under 18 U.S.C. § 924(c), prison terms for brandishing a firearm during a violent crime cannot be served concurrently with sentences for the underlying offense, according to the Marin & Murphy Law Firm. That mandatory stacking is why armed robbery convictions in federal court can carry decades beyond what a standalone robbery charge alone might draw.
The case was prosecuted by Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Lauren Martin and Assistant U.S. Attorney Randall S. Galyon, under U.S. Attorney Dan Bishop. Bishop, a former U.S. Congressman, took over as head of the Middle District of North Carolina's federal prosecutions office in November 2025, overseeing cases across 24 central North Carolina counties, including Forsyth County.
Part of a Broader Federal Crackdown in the Triad
Lawton's case is not an isolated one. In a similar Forsyth County case, Senior U.S. District Judge Catherine C. Eagles sentenced 41-year-old Deangelo Shamond Toomer on September 3 to more than 24 years in federal prison, following another joint WSPD and FBI investigation into a store robbery and kidnapping. Toomer's felony record also dated back to 2001.
Together, the two sentences point to a pattern of local police and federal prosecutors teaming up to pursue federal charges against repeat violent offenders in Winston-Salem, leveraging statutes that carry far steeper penalties than typical state-level outcomes. While Lawton's robbery happened more than seven years ago, his case did not reach a federal jury conviction until March 2026, with sentencing following six months later this week.
