One of two men who cruised Chesterfield County neighborhoods looking for residents to rob was sentenced to 17 years in prison yesterday for robbing two county women a month apart.

After hearing Hugh O. Plunkett Jr. declare his shame for abducting, robbing and carjacking an 81-year-old woman in December, Chesterfield Circuit Judge T.J. Hauler sentenced the 22-year-old Richmonder to 93 years in prison with 76 years suspended.

Plunkett pleaded guilty July 29 to two counts each of robbery and conspiracy to commit robbery, along with one count each of abduction, carjacking and using a firearm in a felony.

State sentencing guidelines called for between 12 years and 18 years, 10 months in prison.

Prosecutor Dennis Duncan asked for a stiff sentence because of the "dangerous, frightening and violent" conduct of Plunkett and his accomplice, Travoris M. Courtney, 25.

"How did you feel after you robbed that 81-year-old woman?" Duncan sharply asked Plunkett on the witness stand in Chesterfield Circuit Court.

"Ashamed," Plunkett softly replied, who repeatedly apologized for his crimes.

Plunkett and Courtney, the ringleader, accosted Davis as she knocked on the door of a friend's home Dec. 17 at the Briarwood Hearth condominiums off Huguenot Road.

They ordered her back into her car and forced her to drive to an ATM machine, where she was threatened at gunpoint to withdraw $800. She was then ordered to return to Briarwood, where the men took her purse and car before fleeing.

Less than a month later, on Jan. 11, Plunkett and Courtney accosted 46-year-old Laura Nelson outside her western Chesterfield home after she returned from the grocery store. After the masked pair tried to force Nelson back into the her car -- and she refused -- Courtney grabbed her purse and fled.

Nelson screamed as she, her two sons and a neighbor gave chase. Plunkett was tackled and held until police arrived; Courtney was arrested a short time later with a third accomplice at a nearby convenience store.

While defense attorney William P. Irwin acknowledged there was no excuse for his client's actions, he emphasized Plunkett's statements in a presentence report that indicated he committed the robberies to help his mother put food on the table and pay the family's bills.

Irwin also noted that Plunkett, while incarcerated at Riverside Regional Jail, earned a General Educational Development diploma, became baptized and is active in the jail's ministry.

"The faith he found is not a faith of convenience," Irwin told the court.

Courtney also was to be sentenced yesterday for the January holdup, but the matter was continued until November after his attorney disputed the sentencing recommendations.
Contact Mark Bowes at (804) 649-6450 or mbowes@timesdispatch.com.