CINCINNATI — Two Cincinnati men were sentenced on Monday to decades in prison in connection to multiple armed robberies, including one that resulted in the death of a Madeira convenience store owner, in February 2021.
Over the course of two days, officials said 33-year-old Willie James Attaway robbed or attempted to rob five gas stations in the Tri-State.
Attaway on Feb. 8, 2021, showed a gun to two clerks at the Shell gas station on S. Mason Montgomery Road in Deerfield Township and demanded they empty their cash registers, which they did. Later that night, he did the same thing to a clerk at the Shell on Dixie Highway in Hamilton.
The next day, Attaway entered Madeira Beverage on Kenwood Road and confronted store owner Roop Gupta, who was working behind the counter. Officials said he pointed his gun at Gupta and after a struggle shot the store owner one time. Gupta was pronounced dead at the hospital.
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Attaway then robbed the Sunoco on Kenwood Road and attempted to rob the Marathon on North Broadway in Lebanon later that night.
He was sentenced to 40 years in prison for murdering Gupta and committing or attempting multiple robberies.
Officials said 38-year-old Lamond Johnson served as Attaway's driver during the robberies. He was sentenced to 23 years in prison after pleading guilty to three counts of using a firearm during a crime of violence and two counts of attempted robbery.
In the days after Gupta's death, community members rallied around his family, raising more than $25,000. Friends and family said he had been attacked inside his business once before when a robber shot him multiple times in the stomach. The community rallied around him then, helping pay his hospital expenses.
