Less than a month after being found guilty of robbing a Subway restaurant in Loyalsock Township in November 2020, Jesse Derick Giddings has been found guilty of carrying out a second November 2020 robbery at Your Choice Discount Tobacco Outlet on Washington Boulevard, Wednesday evening, following a trial in the courtroom of Lycoming County Judge William Carlucci.

The latest verdict comes just one day shy of a year since he was convicted of robbing a Boost Mobile store along Hepburn Street and a Family Dollar on West Fourth Street, both also in November of 2020.

All four robberies were carried out while Giddings, 37, was on an electronic monitoring device.

“We often hear about crime in the media, and we think to ourselves, ‘I’m glad that doesn’t happen here, but the reality is it does happen where we live,” Assistant District Attorney Lindsay Sweeley told the jury during her opening statement.

While conceding that a crime had taken place, defense attorney Brian Ulmer stressed that there was no definitive evidence tying Giddings to the robbery in his opening statement.

The cashier on duty during the Nov. 25, 2020 heist was not called as a witness, Sweeley said, in an effort to avoid revictimizing her.

A customer that entered the store shortly after the early morning robbery, however, testified that the cashier was crouched on the ground on the phone with police, but upset to the point that she was barely able to speak.

“We’ve just been robbed,” she told the witness, who remained at the scene until the cops arrived.

Surveillance video from the store showed an individual wearing all black, gloves and a white surgical mask approaching the store from the right-hand side before entering and pacing around for a short time.

The individual then stops at the Skills machines before summoning the cashier, who looks over the machine.

After turning around, the suspect retrieves a handgun from his pocket and puts it to her back, accompanying her behind the counter, where she hands over $431 from the register, as well as a $98.60 carton of cigarettes.

He then exits the store and flees north on Railway Street, city police Agent Brittany Alexander testified.

A GPS expert called by the prosecution testified that pings from Giddings’ ankle monitor placed him in the vicinity of Your Choice during the duration of the robbery.

The coordinates given by the ankle monitor can, on rare occasions, be off by as much as 100 feet, the expert testified during cross examination.

“This is not guess work. There has to be some evidence in order to convict my client,” Ulmer told the jury during his closing arguments.

“The evidence presented is not factually or legally enough. In fact, my client is factually and legally an innocent man,” Ulmer said, arguing that the witness did not see or hear anything involving the robbery.

Additionally, Ulmer said that there is no evidence that anyone felt threatened or in fear of bodily injury.

No forensic evidence or DNA exists linking Giddings to the scene, Ulmer stressed to the jury.

Citing the surveillance video, Ulmer pointed to the fact that no ankle monitor was visible on the individual seen robbing the store.

“All we heard is a crime was committed, but they can’t identify the suspect,” he said.

“This is not how we do justice in this country,” Ulmer said, urging the jury, “don’t let them do this.”

“Their own evidence, their own experts say Mr. Giddings didn’t commit this robbery,” he said.

“The worst they can say is that he had the bad luck of being in the area during the crime,” Ulmer told the jury.

“Everything you just heard is absolute nonsense,” Sweeley countered.

“I’m not even going to address it and waste your time,” she said.

Noting that a gun was clearly visible, Sweeley urged the jury to use their common sense in reasoning why.

The cashier on duty during the robbery was “hysterical” when she spoke with both the witness as well as Alexander, Sweeley said, even “shutting down” when asked to I.D. the suspect.

Giddings almost committed the perfect crime, Sweeley said, noting that the robbery was committed during the throes of the pandemic when wearing surgical masks inside was commonplace. Additionally, an ankle monitor would not be visible due to the individual in the video donning long pants, she argued.

Meeting an earlier argument by Ulmer that the timeline of events didn’t match up, Sweeley pointed out that had Giddings visited the store after the robbery, he would not have been able to enter the store.

“To find Jesse Giddings not guilty, would be to believe every fact of the case is a coincidence. But there is no such thing as a coincidence. And there are no coincidences in this case,” the Assistant District Attorney said.

Giddings is currently locked up after receiving a state prison sentence of 14 to 28 years for the Family Dollar and Boost Mobile heists.

He is scheduled to be sentenced for the Subway robbery on Nov. 4. A sentencing date on his latest conviction was not immediately available.