Teen Sentenced to Up to 6 Years for 7-Cent Robbery

A 15-year-old Syracuse boy got the book thrown at him over a robbery that netted him all of seven cents. Judge William Walsh refused a defense request to sentence young Anthony Stewart, a Syracuse native, as a “youthful offender,” instead sentencing him as an adult to two to six years in juvenile detention and marking him as a felon for life, the Post Standard reports.

Stewart and an accomplice allegedly beat up a 73-year-old man, only to discover he had only spare change in his pocket. Both held guns, but Stewart says they were just BB guns. The judge said Stewart earned the harsh sentence by refusing to plead guilty, despite being identified by the victim. “Well, that cost you,” he said. His accomplice, 16, did plead guilty, and was sentenced as a youthful offender to 1.3 to four years in prison. (More sentence stories.)