A Fairfax County man was sentenced to serve 14 years in the penitentiary for an Alexandria robbery that occurred in 2016.
Matthew Alex Hardy, 28, was sentenced to 33 years in the penitentiary, with 19 years of that sentence suspended, after pleading guilty to a four-count indictment last year that charged him with three felonies – robbery, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony and grand larceny from person – and one misdemeanor: brandishing a firearm.
Hardy’s sentence requires him to remain of good behavior for 20 years upon his release from the penitentiary, to comply with supervised probation for 10 years following his release and to not contact robbery victims and pay restitution.
Hardy was charged with the crime following two separate robberies on the same Subway store on Eisenhower Avenue in Alexandria on Nov. 12, 2016 and Nov. 19, 2016. Hardy entered the location, pointed a silver handgun at employees and forced them to give him money from the cash register.
The Alexandria Police Department identified him as a suspect following an investigation, which revealed Hardy had committed a series of similar robberies throughout Maryland and Virginia. Hardy was in the midst of serving a five-year penitentiary sentence in Maryland for robbery and was extradited to Alexandria on the new charges. He had previously pleaded guilty to robbery in Arlington County and was sentenced to serve five years in the penitentiary, consecutive to the Alexandria sentence, which will result in a total of 19 years of active incarceration for Hardy in Virginia.
Hardy, now in the William G. Truesdale Alexandria Adult Detention Center, will be transferred to Maryland to serve the rest of his sentence there. After he completes that sentence, he will return to Virginia to serve his penitentiary sentence in the commonwealth.
