A Columbus State Community College student was sentenced Wednesday for the robbery of the Uniprint store on Millikin Way on Sept. 30, 2009.
Kalvin S. Rohr was sentenced to prison for a total of four years and 11 months. His sentence consisted of three years for aggravated robbery, one year for firearm specification and 11 months for aggravated assault.
Rohr was the last of three suspects to be arrested after a tip was left with Central Ohio Crime Stoppers on Oct. 27, 2009, said Ohio State Police Detective Pete Dragonette. Tekie Seyoum Tesfamichael pleaded guilty Aug. 12, and Daquan M. Ellis pleaded guilty Sept. 22, Dragonette said.
Tesfamichael was charged with robbery and was sentenced with six years in prison. Ellis was charged with aggravated robbery and sentenced with eight years of prison.
Tesfamichael and Ellis were sentenced in October 2010.
“To be honest with you, at that point, we had no idea who the third person was,” Dragonette said.
Dragonette said Tesfamichael was a temporary employee of UniPrint at the time of the robbery. Tesfamichael told the other two that it would be a good place to rob and that “there’s a lot of money in the store.”
Tesfamichael was sending texts to Ellis while he was working on the day of the robbery.
“(Based on those texts), it was clear that Tesfamichael was involved in the planning of this robbery,” Dragonette said.
Dragonette said two masked men — Ellis, with a gun, and Rohr — aggressively forced their way into the UniPrint store, hitting an individual while the other workers were outside assisting customers. They got away with $3,200. The money was never recovered because they spent it, Dragonette said.
The Lantern was denied access to the victim’s name in court documents.
Dragonette is still not sure who hit the victim. Ellis claims that Rohr hit the employee, but the victim’s description of the robber who hit him/her matched the description of Ellis.
“There are inconsistencies amongst the parties about each other’s involvement,” said J. Scott Weisman, Rohr’s attorney. “The one consistency is that they were all involved.”
They sped away in a white Cadillac. An anonymous tip told police that Rohr was the third robber and that the getaway vehicle belonged to Rohr’s mother.
Dragonette said Tesfamichael never received any of the stolen money because Ellis and Rohr claimed that “he didn’t do his part of the robbery.”
“Tesfamichael was supposed to have gotten hit by either Ellis or Rohr to make it look more realistic, but that didn’t happen,” Dragonette said.
According to court records, Rohr pleaded guilty Jan. 31.
“Bottom line is, it’s sad that young people with potential, which I’d say (Rohr) definitely had, end up taking this route, or end up finding themselves desperate enough to have to take this route,” Weisman said.
