NEW HAVEN, Conn. — A 59-year-old man who robbed a Sunglass Hut at the Westfarms Mall in West Hartford at gunpoint was sentenced Friday in federal court in New Haven to 102 months in prison, the U.S. attorney's office for Connecticut said.

U.S. District Judge Sarah F. Russell also ordered Willie White, formerly of Bristol, New Britain and Hartford, to serve five years of supervised release after his prison term, prosecutors said.

According to prosecutors, White showed a handgun while robbing the store on July 15, 2024, and took six pairs of designer sunglasses with a total retail value of about $2,811.

Mall security identified White soon after the robbery from surveillance footage and from earlier encounters with him over shoplifting at the mall, prosecutors said. Investigators learned he was under state supervision and wearing a GPS monitoring device, and they arrested him the same day at a restaurant in New Britain.

When he was arrested, White had the stolen sunglasses, a Glock pistol and a 9mm magazine loaded with 17 rounds of hollow-point ammunition, according to prosecutors. The pistol had been reported stolen in Alabama and was fitted with a so-called Glock switch, a device that allows certain guns to fire fully automatically, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said White has numerous prior felony convictions for drug, robbery, burglary and other offenses. Federal law bars people convicted of felonies from having guns or ammunition.

White has been held since his arrest. On March 17, he pleaded guilty to robbery affecting commerce, known as Hobbs Act robbery; brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence; and illegal possession of a firearm by a felon.

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