Man commits robbery for $35 ribs, gets 50 years in prison

A habitual offender may have committed his final felony, after a jury sentenced him to 50 years for stealing a rack of ribs from a shop.

Willie Smith Ward, 43, attempted to steal the $35 large rack of ribs at the H-E-B store in Waco, Texas, by smuggling it underneath his shirt. Ward was then apprehended in the car park by a shopping assistant, who noticed the bulge and tried to stop him leaving.

According to the Waco Tribune-Herald, his act of theft was heightened to robbery when he threatened the employee by telling him he was in possession of a knife. According to the employees testimony, he added: If you dont leave me alone, Ill show you what I got, before running off. He was later arrested.

A jury in Wacos 19th State District Court took just two minutes to convict Ward for robbery and an hour to recommend a sentence. Ward already had five previous felonies and four convictions for misdemeanours. His previous convictions have been for crimes including burglary, attempted robbery, aggravated assault, leaving the scene of an accident and possession of cocaine.

Assistant District Attorney J.R. Vicha, prosecuting, told Ward: This verdict shows that the citizens of this county will not tolerate a continued disrespect and disregard for other people and their property. People who choose to do so will be dealt with seriously and appropriately.

He will have to serve at least a quarter of his sentence before being eligible for parole. He allegedly rejected a 20-year prison sentence in a plea bargain before the trial.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/man-in-waco-texas-gets-50-years-in-prison-for-stealing-a-35-rack-of-ribs-8640078.html

Priors are a bitch. I expected this story to come from California or Florida tbh lol.

If the guy already had 5 felonies, whether he's now stealing ribs or something worse, he seems like a lifer anyway. There's a lot of people that are just lifelong criminals.

According to the Waco Tribune-Herald, his act of theft was heightened to robbery when he threatened the employee by telling him he was in possession of a knife. According to the employees testimony, he added: If you dont leave me alone, Ill show you what I got, before running off.

Aljosa23

Honestly, I'd say this detail in confluence with prior felonies matters a bit more than the ribs. Also, he rejected a plea bargain for 20, so, yeah.

That's unfortunate.

He's obviously a criminal, but the punishment doesn't fit the crime...even though he has so many priors.

The bureaucratic legal system has some serious flaws.

I'm assuming texas doesn't have some sort of 3 strikes law like in California?

good riddance

.

5 felonies, 4 misdemeanors, cocaine addict, threatened a guy with a knife, and turned down the 20 year plea bargain.

the title makes it sound as if the sentence is unreasonable.. a guy like this has no place in society.

A habitual offender may have committed his final felony, after a jury sentenced him to 50 years for stealing a rack of ribs from a shop.

Willie Smith Ward, 43, attempted to steal the $35 large rack of ribs at the H-E-B store in Waco, Texas, by smuggling it underneath his shirt. Ward was then apprehended in the car park by a shopping assistant, who noticed the bulge and tried to stop him leaving.

According to the Waco Tribune-Herald, his act of theft was heightened to robbery when he threatened the employee by telling him he was in possession of a knife. According to the employees testimony, he added: If you dont leave me alone, Ill show you what I got, before running off. He was later arrested.

A jury in Wacos 19th State District Court took just two minutes to convict Ward for robbery and an hour to recommend a sentence. Ward already had five previous felonies and four convictions for misdemeanours. His previous convictions have been for crimes including burglary, attempted robbery, aggravated assault, leaving the scene of an accident and possession of cocaine.

Assistant District Attorney J.R. Vicha, prosecuting, told Ward: This verdict shows that the citizens of this county will not tolerate a continued disrespect and disregard for other people and their property. People who choose to do so will be dealt with seriously and appropriately.

He will have to serve at least a quarter of his sentence before being eligible for parole. He allegedly rejected a 20-year prison sentence in a plea bargain before the trial.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/man-in-waco-texas-gets-50-years-in-prison-for-stealing-a-35-rack-of-ribs-8640078.html

Priors are a bitch. I expected this story to come from California or Florida tbh lol.

Aljosa23

I laughed to hard at this honestly.

Oh well. Am I supposed to care that some moron was convicted after multiple felonies?LJS9502_basic

edited the title

5 felonies, 4 misdemeanors, cocaine addict, threatened a guy with a knife, and turned down the 20 year plea bargain.

the title makes it sound as if the sentence is unreasonable.. a guy like this has no place in society.

Sword-Demon

Only 50 years? He should have got the death penalty, to be honest. :D

Unfortunately for him, he doesn't fall into the "too big to jail" category.

If he'd been the CEO of a bank, he could have stolen a couple of billion Dollars and received a bailout-funded bonus instead of a jail sentence.

life is shit. if youre born into a low income household, its ggJustSignedUp

Sounds like a potentially dangerous man, especially for the threats he made. He was given too many chances and now he deserves what's coming to him.

americans are dumb, we europeans are smartevildead6789

:lol::lol::lol:

Sorry i know you're trolling, but that struck my funny bone.

The prison-industrial complex is doing its job of growing the inmate population. Yeah the guy has prior felonies, they probably all stem from his drug addiction. Addicted to cocaine; sent to prison for it; receives no kind of therapy or rehab to actual address his drug problem; released back into society with no money, no job, and the only thing keeping him from his drug habit is a forced detox and and a little vacation; arrested again for robbery to support his addiction; cycle repeats. It's absolutely crazy that the U.S. is so willing to lock prisoners up and do absolutely nothing to prevent them from going back. In fact, it creates an environment that pretty much guarantees a inmate will return once released. I'm not saying this is the story of this particular individual, but it very likely is, and it's the story of thousands of other inmates in our prisons. Obviously he deserves to be punished for what he did, but I think our tax dollars would be better served rehabilitating these individuals, rather than paying private companies that profit from keeping inmates in the system.SandwichLord

[QUOTE="JustSignedUp"]life is shit. if youre born into a low income household, its ggMurderstyle75

[QUOTE="Murderstyle75"][QUOTE="JustSignedUp"]life is shit. if youre born into a low income household, its ggSandwichLord

thus, technocracy.

[QUOTE="SandwichLord"]The prison-industrial complex is doing its job of growing the inmate population. Yeah the guy has prior felonies, they probably all stem from his drug addiction. Addicted to cocaine; sent to prison for it; receives no kind of therapy or rehab to actual address his drug problem; released back into society with no money, no job, and the only thing keeping him from his drug habit is a forced detox and and a little vacation; arrested again for robbery to support his addiction; cycle repeats. It's absolutely crazy that the U.S. is so willing to lock prisoners up and do absolutely nothing to prevent them from going back. In fact, it creates an environment that pretty much guarantees a inmate will return once released. I'm not saying this is the story of this particular individual, but it very likely is, and it's the story of thousands of other inmates in our prisons. Obviously he deserves to be punished for what he did, but I think our tax dollars would be better served rehabilitating these individuals, rather than paying private companies that profit from keeping inmates in the system.gamerguru100

[QUOTE="Murderstyle75"][QUOTE="JustSignedUp"]life is shit. if youre born into a low income household, its ggSandwichLord

Yeah, I think I remember hearing about how Norway rehabilitates its criminals (who have comfortable cells) and something like 90% of them don't re-offend. I don't know if that's true or not. But really, if there are illegal drugs that are proven to have more pros than cons, then we should legalize them and pull out any offenders who just have drug charges on them. Prisons are for murderers, burglars, rapists, pedophiles, and any other assholes that pose a legit threat to society, not a dude who was caught with a few grams of cocaine.

gamerguru100

That's somewhat misleading.  He's getting 50 years because he committed 5 prior crimes plus this.  Still seems unreasonable, but not quite as crazy as how it was initially presented.

The prison-industrial complex is doing its job of growing the inmate population. Yeah the guy has prior felonies, they probably all stem from his drug addiction. Addicted to cocaine; sent to prison for it; receives no kind of therapy or rehab to actual address his drug problem; released back into society with no money, no job, and the only thing keeping him from his drug habit is a forced detox and and a little vacation; arrested again for robbery to support his addiction; cycle repeats. It's absolutely crazy that the U.S. is so willing to lock prisoners up and do absolutely nothing to prevent them from going back. In fact, it creates an environment that pretty much guarantees a inmate will return once released. I'm not saying this is the story of this particular individual, but it very likely is, and it's the story of thousands of other inmates in our prisons. Obviously he deserves to be punished for what he did, but I think our tax dollars would be better served rehabilitating these individuals, rather than paying private companies that profit from keeping inmates in the system.SandwichLord

[QUOTE="gamerguru100"]

Yeah, I think I remember hearing about how Norway rehabilitates its criminals (who have comfortable cells) and something like 90% of them don't re-offend. I don't know if that's true or not. But really, if there are illegal drugs that are proven to have more pros than cons, then we should legalize them and pull out any offenders who just have drug charges on them. Prisons are for murderers, burglars, rapists, pedophiles, and any other assholes that pose a legit threat to society, not a dude who was caught with a few grams of cocaine.

SandwichLord

Career felons know the law almost as good as lawyers.  

They also develop the inability to function outside of prison.

Often times they will go commit the smallest crimes possible just to go back in.

The sentence this topic is about is too harsh for the crime commited. The thief should get counseling, but not a ridiculous prison term.BranKetra

The lengthy term is because of previous crimes/felonies. The ribs just seemed to bring attention to that. Sucks for him.

[QUOTE="BranKetra"]The sentence this topic is about is too harsh for the crime commited. The thief should get counseling, but not a ridiculous prison term.shoot-first

The lengthy term is because of previous crimes/felonies. The ribs just seemed to bring attention to that. Sucks for him.

If the guy already had 5 felonies, whether he's now stealing ribs or something worse, he seems like a lifer anyway. There's a lot of people that are just lifelong criminals.

Pirate700

The guy is clearly a problem. But there is simply no way to justify 50 years.Sajo7

[QUOTE="SandwichLord"]The prison-industrial complex is doing its job of growing the inmate population. Yeah the guy has prior felonies, they probably all stem from his drug addiction. Addicted to cocaine; sent to prison for it; receives no kind of therapy or rehab to actual address his drug problem; released back into society with no money, no job, and the only thing keeping him from his drug habit is a forced detox and and a little vacation; arrested again for robbery to support his addiction; cycle repeats. It's absolutely crazy that the U.S. is so willing to lock prisoners up and do absolutely nothing to prevent them from going back. In fact, it creates an environment that pretty much guarantees a inmate will return once released. I'm not saying this is the story of this particular individual, but it very likely is, and it's the story of thousands of other inmates in our prisons. Obviously he deserves to be punished for what he did, but I think our tax dollars would be better served rehabilitating these individuals, rather than paying private companies that profit from keeping inmates in the system.gamerguru100

[QUOTE="gamerguru100"]

Yeah, I think I remember hearing about how Norway rehabilitates its criminals (who have comfortable cells) and something like 90% of them don't re-offend. I don't know if that's true or not. But really, if there are illegal drugs that are proven to have more pros than cons, then we should legalize them and pull out any offenders who just have drug charges on them. Prisons are for murderers, burglars, rapists, pedophiles, and any other assholes that pose a legit threat to society, not a dude who was caught with a few grams of cocaine.

SandwichLord

[QUOTE="gamerguru100"]

[QUOTE="SandwichLord"]The prison-industrial complex is doing its job of growing the inmate population. Yeah the guy has prior felonies, they probably all stem from his drug addiction. Addicted to cocaine; sent to prison for it; receives no kind of therapy or rehab to actual address his drug problem; released back into society with no money, no job, and the only thing keeping him from his drug habit is a forced detox and and a little vacation; arrested again for robbery to support his addiction; cycle repeats. It's absolutely crazy that the U.S. is so willing to lock prisoners up and do absolutely nothing to prevent them from going back. In fact, it creates an environment that pretty much guarantees a inmate will return once released. I'm not saying this is the story of this particular individual, but it very likely is, and it's the story of thousands of other inmates in our prisons. Obviously he deserves to be punished for what he did, but I think our tax dollars would be better served rehabilitating these individuals, rather than paying private companies that profit from keeping inmates in the system.MrGeezer

People get accustomed to living in Prison and it is extremely hard to get accustomed to living as a free person where you make your own decisions about when to eat, sleep, work, play and you have to find your own job and place to live. 

It seems to me that this guy didn't care if he went back to prison.

[QUOTE="evildead6789"]americans are dumb, we europeans are smartfrannkzappa

:lol::lol::lol:

Sorry i know you're trolling, but that struck my funny bone.

[QUOTE="gamerguru100"]

Yeah, I think I remember hearing about how Norway rehabilitates its criminals (who have comfortable cells) and something like 90% of them don't re-offend. I don't know if that's true or not. But really, if there are illegal drugs that are proven to have more pros than cons, then we should legalize them and pull out any offenders who just have drug charges on them. Prisons are for murderers, burglars, rapists, pedophiles, and any other assholes that pose a legit threat to society, not a dude who was caught with a few grams of cocaine.

SandwichLord

[QUOTE="JustSignedUp"]life is shit. if youre born into a low income household, its ggMurderstyle75