BURLINGTON — A 31-year old Rutland man who is charged with attempting to arrange a sexual encounter with a juvenile in West Lebanon was sentenced to 38 months in prison after he pleaded guilty in federal court Friday to robbing a convenience store in Wallingford, Vt.
Joey Sherwood, who has been detained since he first appeared in federal court in September, is also facing charges in Grafton County Superior Court in New Hampshire for trying to meet a juvenile for sex in a West Lebanon parking lot in 2020.
He had been released on $10,000 bail when he robbed at knifepoint a Cumberland Farms store in Wallingford in August 2021.
As part of his plea agreement, Sherwood admitted to three additional convenience store robberies around the same time, including a Maplefields store in Pittsford, Vt.; Union Street Grocery in Brandon, Vt.; and attempted robbery of a Maplefields store in Shoreham, Vt., according to a news release from U.S. Attorney’s office in Burlington.
Sherwood was arrested on Feb. 13, 2020, in a sting operation by Lebanon police, who struck up a conversation with him over social media, which led to Sherwood arranging to meet the person he thought was a child for sex at a parking lot off Market Street in West Lebanon, Lebanon police announced at the time.
Grafton County Attorney Marcie Hornick said that Sherwood’s Grafton County case is proceeding and waiting on the court to set a hearing date.
“We still intend to see his prosecution through here in Grafton County,” Hornick said via email to the Valley News on Friday.