Man accused in 2 Tacoma holdups gets 25 years in prison

The man accused of holding up the same Tacoma market twice in 2014 was sentenced Friday to 25 years in prison in a deal with prosecutors that allowed him to avoid a life sentence.

Anthony Petruccelli, 32, had two previous robbery convictions when he was arrested in March 2015 and charged with holding up a market in the 700 block of South 72nd Street twice in a three-day span of July 2014.

Clerks told investigators a man later identified as Petruccelli threatened them with a knife before making off with cash from the register, court records show. No one was hurt.

Pierce County prosecutors originally charged Petruccelli with two counts of first-degree robbery, a conviction for which would have meant a sentence of life without parole under Washington’s “three strikes you’re out” law.

Instead, Petruccelli agreed to plead guilty to two counts of intimidating a witness and one count of second-degree burglary and accept an exceptional sentence upward of 25 years, Deputy Prosecutor Terry Lane said.

The deal allowed prosecutors to avoid going to trial and resulted in Petruccelli receiving “a good chunk of time,” Lane said.

This story was originally published July 1, 2016 at 4:02 PM with the headline "Man accused in 2 Tacoma holdups gets 25 years in prison."