A Newark man has been sentenced to nearly a decade in state prison in connection with the armed robberies of two Union Township convenience stores in 2012, acting Union County Prosecutor Grace H. Park announced Friday.
State Superior Court Judge Scott J. Moynihan sentenced 22-year-old Nequan Stover to nine years, with at least 85 percent of the term required to be served before the possibility of parole.
The date was June 9, 2012 when a man later identified as Stover and one other person entered the One Stop Mini Market on Laurel Avenue in Union and confronted the store clerk, with Stover brandishing a handgun, according to Union County Assistant Prosecutor Jill O’Malley, who prosecuted the case. Stover forced his way into the booth in which the store clerk was standing, assaulted him with the firearm, and made off with more than $1,000 in cash, O’Malley said.
A month later, on July 10, 2012, Stover entered the Quick Chek on Morris Avenue in Union and held store employees and a customer at gunpoint while an accomplice swiped cash registers from a rear office.
Following an intensive investigation by the Union Township Police Department, Stover was identified as a suspect and arrested two days later. He pleaded guilty in the case earlier this month.
Stover’s accomplice in the first robbery has yet to be identified or charged. His accomplice in the second robbery, a juvenile at the time of the incident, is in custody pending an appeal of the state’s decision to try him as an adult.