A St. Paul man has been sentenced to 14.5 years in federal prison for a series of armed robberies of grocery stores along University Avenue in St. Paul.

Nicholas Antwain Dancy, 39, robbed three grocery stores during a 10-day period from May 27, 2022, through June 5, 2022.

Dancy targeted three grocers: Towfiq Grocery, Midway Grocery and Deli, and Global Food and Mid Market. He used a gun to threaten store employees and demand cash.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota indicted Dancy in August 2022.

Dancy plead guilty in July to three counts of Hobbs Act robbery and one count of brandishing a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence.

The federal Hobbs Act “prohibits actual or attempted robbery or extortion affecting interstate or foreign commerce.”

U.S. District Judge John Tunheim sentenced him on Thursday. The 175-month sentence is followed by five years of supervised release.

The case was investigated by the FBI and the St. Paul Police Department.

Dancy was previously convicted of felony-level domestic assault in 2020. That same year he was convicted of a petty misdemeanor for fleeing a peace officer. In 2016 Dancy was convicted of a domestic assault felony.

As a convicted felon he was banned from possessing firearms or ammunition.