Gainesville man transported from prison to face 2020 armed robbery charge

Staff report

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Robert Joseph Hill, 23, has been booked into the Alachua County Jail to be arraigned on a 2020 armed robbery charge; he is serving an eight-year sentence in the Florida Department of Corrections for armed robbery charges out of Marion County.

At about 11:30 a.m. on May 27, 2020, an Alachua County Sheriff’s Deputy responded to a report of an armed robbery at the 43rd Street Deli on SW Williston Road. A victim and two witnesses told the deputy that they were robbed at gunpoint by two men; one man allegedly pointed a “stainless revolver” at them while demanding money, while the other man was the driver of a van. The victims said they dropped a flag and the suspects picked it up and put it in their van before driving away.

On the same day, Marion County Sheriff’s Deputies responded to multiple reports about similar incidents, and Hill and David Pritt were arrested; a search of their vehicle, a Chrysler van, reportedly produced a BB gun that was a replica of a .357 caliber revolver.

Post Miranda, Hill reportedly denied involvement in the Gainesville armed robbery but admitted being in Gainesville at the time of the incident. Pritt reportedly declined to answer any questions.

Cell phone location information reportedly showed that both suspects were in the general area of the incident at the time it was reported.

Hill has been charged with armed robbery. Hill has juvenile convictions for petit theft, robbery, battery, and grand theft of a motor vehicle. He has adult convictions for robbery, attempted robbery, battery on a person over 65, battery on a detainee in a correctional facility, and resisting an officer without violence. Judge Susan Miller-Jones ordered him held without bail pending a hearing on a motion from the State Attorney’s office to hold him without bail until trial, but he must finish his state prison sentence from Marion County before he could post bail; he is currently scheduled to be released in November 2029.

The armed robbery charge against Pritt was dropped in April 2023.

Articles about arrests are based on reports from law enforcement agencies. The charges listed are taken from the arrest report and/or court records and are only accusations. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.