HAMPTON, Va. (WAVY) — A Newport News man will serve 15 years in prison for his role in a 2017 robbery that led to a Hampton police officer being shot.
Allen Ralph was sentenced to 53 years with 38 years suspended after pleading guilty Monday to three counts of use of a firearm, conspire to rob, and robbery. Other charges he faced were withdrawn.
Police say Leonard Allen Morrison III, who was 29 at the time, took an officer’s gun while trying to flee the scene and shot the officer in his ballistic vest. The officer would recover and Morrison survived after being shot multiple times.
Morrison was found guilty on 18 of 20 charges in the case in 2019, including on two counts of attempted capital murder of a police officer. He was sentenced to two life terms and 163 years.
Ralph was one of three suspects arrested after the armed robbery of a Game Stop store on Hampton Roads Center Parkway back on June 12, 2017.
The third man in the robbery, James Gregory, pleaded guilty to multiple charges in the case, including robbery, conspiracy to commit robbery and abduction. He was later sentenced to 80 years in prison.
Both Morrison and Gregory were also charged in connection to a Virginia Beach double murder that happened just two days before the robbery. Morrison was found guilty on two counts of first-degree murder in the case.