Anthony Fields

Introduction

Anthony Fields is a 49-year-old man from Middletown, Delaware, who was sentenced on October 22, 2026, to ten years in federal prison for a January 2025 crime spree in which he robbed a Middletown restaurant and a Middletown gas station at gunpoint. U.S. District Judge Jennifer L. Hall imposed the custody term along with three years of supervised release, closing a case that began when Fields walked into those businesses with an apparent sawed-off shotgun with a duct-taped handle and ended with him turning himself in after learning police were hunting him. Fields pleaded guilty on June 17, 2026, to two counts of Hobbs Act robbery.

Background Information

The announcement documents the spree but offers little about Fields himself beyond his age, his hometown, and the fact that he had remained in custody from the moment of his February 2025 surrender. What the court record does establish is the shape of the two robberies: both in Middletown, five days apart in January 2025, both committed with the same sawed-off shotgun, and both aimed at small businesses — a restaurant and a gas station — whose workers and customers had no way to anticipate the attacks. The federal reach came through the Hobbs Act, the robbery statute that covers conduct affecting interstate commerce, which is how local armed robberies became a federal prosecution prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kevin P. Pierce and Bryan C. Williamson.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Convicted and sentenced. Fields pleaded guilty to two counts of Hobbs Act robbery and was sentenced to ten years in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release.

According to court documents and statements made in court, on January 25, 2025, Fields robbed a Middletown restaurant using an apparent sawed-off shotgun with a duct-taped handle. Five days later, he robbed a Middletown gas station with the same firearm. Across the two robberies, he stole 23 lottery tickets, $444 in cash, and a gas station employee’s cell phone. The violence did not stop at the businesses’ doors: while fleeing the gas station, Fields carjacked an innocent bystander, stealing a vehicle at gunpoint to make his escape. He then spent several days at large, driving his victim’s stolen vehicle before abandoning it at a casino in Maryland, where he spent some of the stolen proceeds. The run ended on February 2, 2025, when Fields turned himself in after becoming aware that authorities were hunting him, and he has remained in custody ever since.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The government’s statements framed the case as one about a community’s sense of safety. U.S. Attorney Benjamin L. Wallace said that "in January 2025, Anthony Fields launched a campaign of terror in Middletown, threatening multiple people with a sawed-off shotgun," and that Fields "will spend years in federal prison, where he will not be able to do further harm to our State." FBI Baltimore Special Agent in Charge Jimmy Paul said Fields "recklessly put restaurant workers and gas station employees — as well as customers at each of those businesses — at risk," noting that "those affected still carry the memories of these terrifying robberies." Middletown Police Department Chief Deputy Jon Wood called the robberies and carjackings serious crimes with "a significant impact on the safety and sense of security within our community." The case was investigated by the Middletown Police Department and the FBI’s Delaware Violent Crime and Safe Streets Task Force, and was brought as part of Operation Take Back America.

Current Status

Fields was sentenced on October 22, 2026, by U.S. District Judge Jennifer L. Hall to ten years in federal prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release. His guilty plea to the two Hobbs Act robbery counts, entered June 17, 2026, is final, and because he had been in custody since his February 2, 2025, surrender, the sentence credited that continuous custody. The announcement, docketed in the District of Delaware under PACER Case No. 25-44-JLH, did not report an appeal or any post-sentencing motion, so the disposition stands as announced: pleaded, sentenced, and in federal custody. The stolen vehicle, the lottery tickets, the cash, and the victim’s phone remain part of the court record of what he took across the eight-day spree.

Impact on Their Career/Life

At 49, Fields now carries a ten-year federal sentence that will keep him in custody into his late fifties, with three years of supervised release extending court oversight beyond that. The plea converted the spree into two federal felony convictions for Hobbs Act robbery — convictions that follow any eventual release in employment, housing, and firearms restrictions. For Middletown, the case closed with the businesses’ workers and customers identified in the government’s own statements as the people who "still carry the memories" of the attacks, a reminder that the sentence answered but did not undo the eight days in January and February 2025 when a man with a duct-taped shotgun moved through the town’s restaurants, gas stations, and streets.

Sources

• U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Delaware, "Middletown Man Sentenced to Ten Years for Armed Robberies," November 4, 2026. source