Man who threatened to chop off pizzeria workers’ heads during armed robbery sentenced to federal prison

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     ASHEVILLE, NC (WHNS) — A man armed with a machete who forced Domino’s Pizza workers into the store’s freezer and threatened to start “chopping heads off” will be spending the next eight years in federal prison.

According to the US Attorney’s Office, Curtis Andrew Wallace, Jr., 30, of Asheville, was sentenced to 84 months in prison Tuesday for the armed robbery.

The crime happened on December 30, 2019 at the Domino’s Pizza on Patton Avenue.

Wallace was arrested at the scene, and after he was in custody, police said they found five store employees lying face down inside the walk-in freezer.

One of the employees told officers that Wallace ran in the store carrying a machete and ordered everyone to get on the floor in the back office or he would hurt them.

During the robbery, Wallace demanded money from the safe and ordered the employees to lay face down inside the restaurant’s freezer. He also kicked several employees, one of them in the face, and threatened to “start chopping heads off” if they did not comply.

Wallace pleaded guilty to interference with commerce by threat or violence, commonly referred to as Hobbs Act Robbery. He has a prior federal conviction for the 2011 robbery of an Asheville-area bank.

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