A Philadelphia man who targeted business owners for violent break-ins and robberies in 2021 has been sentenced to 17½ years in prison and ordered to pay $60,000 in restitution.
Ali Chandler, 30, was also ordered to serve three years of supervised release under the sentence imposed Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Juan R. Sánchez.
Chandler and co-defendant Abdullah Hartage were charged by superseding indictment in October 2022. Both pleaded guilty in October 2024 to charges of conspiracy to commit robbery and committing or threatening physical violence in furtherance of a plan to commit robbery.
Hartage was sentenced to 18 years in federal prison in January and also ordered to pay $60,000 restitution.
Hartage, 28, also of Philadelphia, was involved in a similar scheme in Marple in 2015 and was sentenced to two to four years in a state prison in 2016 for that case. He was 17 at the time of those offenses.
According to the indictment:
Chandler, Hartage and others coordinated a robbery of the owners of a Glenolden business and waited for them to leave the business on the night of Nov. 13, 2021.
They then drove to the victims’ home in Middletown in Abdullah’s 2011 Nissan Armada, arriving about 10 minutes before the victims.
As the three victims arrived home, Chandler, Hartage and others entered their garage armed with firearms and pointed the guns at the victims.
A 61-year-old male victim was struck several times in the head. One of the gunmen demanded a 65-year-old female victim’s car keys, forced her into the residence at gunpoint and struck her several times in the head as well.
Once inside the home, a security alarm sounded and the robbers fled. As they were fleeing, they grabbed a backpack belonging to one of the victims with credit and debit cards inside. Chandler attempted to use one of those cards within an hour at a gas station in Philadelphia.
Chandler and Hartage employed the same scheme in robbing a Montgomery County home on Dec. 2, 2021, where an employee of a Philadelphia hair business lived.
They again waited for the victim to arrive home after closing the business and forcefully entered the home at gunpoint. One of the men told that victim, “I know where you work.”
That 68-year-old victim was zip-tied and pistol whipped. The robbers then ransacked the home, eventually making off with a safe containing approximately $60,000 and other valuables.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Doherty prosecuted the case. Chandler was represented by Kathleen Guaghan and Hartage was represented by Jeremy H.G. Ibrahim.