Dante Lamont Lewis, who turns 20 next month, now stands to spend the better part of five decades behind bars.

He was sentenced to 16 years in prison yesterday for driving the getaway car in the Oct. 10 robbery and throat-slashing of a Chesterfield County car-wash manager.

That comes on top of a 30-year term he received this month for shooting and attempting to rob a Blue Bunny ice-cream vendor Oct. 7 in the parking lot of a South Richmond playground.

Yesterday's added sentence appeared to weigh heavily on the Richmond youth, who exhaled deeply and slumped his shoulders in frustration as he was being led out of a Chesterfield courtroom.

Circuit Judge Cleo E. Powell refused to allow Lewis to serve his new prison time concurrently with the 30 years he got in the city.

Judges are loath to tinker with the verdict of a jury. In February, jurors recommended Lewis receive prison terms of eight, five and three years after convicting him of robbery, conspiracy to commit robbery and using a firearm in a felony, respectively.

"It could have been a whole lot worse," Keith Hurley, Lewis' court-appointed attorney, said after yesterday's hearing. "I mean if [the jury had] convicted him of aggravated malicious wounding, that's a 20-year minimum. So he would have ended up with at least that, and then the mandatory time for the robbery and the firearm."

In comments to the judge just before sentencing, Lewis insisted he didn't shoot and gravely wound ice-cream vendor Daniel Teodorescu in South Richmond on Oct. 7, and that he wasn't aware that three companions planned to rob and slash the throat of $3 Car Wash manager Maurice Lavender three days later.

Lewis drove the car to the business along with his three companions, but he stayed behind with the vehicle and vacuumed the interior as the trio entered the office area on the pretext of applying for jobs, according to evidence presented in February.

Michael D. Carter, 20, remained in the lobby as 17-year-old Cameron Velez, armed with a box cuter, and 17-year-old Gregory J. White, holding a gun, forced Lavender to open the office safe. As they backed out of the office with $500 to $1,000 in cash, Velez moved back toward Lavender and slashed him on the neck, according to evidence.

Lavender might have bled to death if not for the quick action of a surgical nurse from CJW Medical Center (Chippenham), who stemmed the bleeding until paramedics arrived at the car wash, at 11100 Hull Street Road.

The suspects were arrested within about a week of the holdup. Forensic investigators were able to match fingerprints found on the job applications left at the car wash with those of Carter, Velez and White, prosecutor Mark Krueger said.

Lewis acknowledged yesterday that he knew a robbery was going to take place. But he said he didn't want any part of it and wasn't aware it was going to be carried out that day at the car wash.

The judge didn't buy it. She said the position of the getaway car in the parking lot was consistent with someone who wanted to make a quick escape.

Carter, who owned the car that Lewis apparently planned to buy, pleaded guilty Feb. 26 to robbery, aggravated malicious wounding and felony use of a firearm. White and Velez are scheduled to stand trial May 21 and June 9, respectively.

Lewis could receive even more time on top of the 46 years he now has to serve.

About three months before Teodorescu was wounded in South Richmond, Lewis was released from prison after serving a 2½-year term for beating another youth so severely that he was left in a coma with a skull fracture. Lewis may now be required to serve 2½ years that was suspended for that crime, Hurley noted.

"Since 2005, the defendant has been in trouble constantly," Krueger told the court.
Contact Mark Bowes at (804) 649-6450 or mbowes@timesdispatch.com.