Man Sentenced to Jail for Shoplifting From Various Norfolk ABC Stores in 2023 Following Coordinated Effort by Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office and Norfolk Police

NORFOLK, Va. — Johnny Letee Ratcliff, 49, was sentenced on Tuesday, Jan. 7, to serve 21 months in jail after he pleaded guilty to shoplifting multiple times from three ABC stores in 2023.

Across several months in 2023, Mr. Ratcliff shoplifted bottles of liquor from three Norfolk ABC store locations: 7862 Tidewater Drive, 2350 E. Little Creek Road, and 1595 International Blvd. In each of the incidents, Mr. Ratcliff took bottles of liquor off the shelves, placed them in his backpack, and left without paying. On some occasions, Mr. Ratcliff stole from the same location twice in less than a day. ABC store employees recognized Mr. Ratcliff and captured his thefts on video but did not know his name. Norfolk Police worked with ABC employees and were able to identify and charge Mr. Ratcliff in January 2024 with numerous counts of misdemeanor shoplifting.

In Virginia, prosecutors receive no state funding to assign prosecutors to misdemeanor cases. In many Virginia localities, including multiple cities in Hampton Roads, misdemeanor petit larceny cases go to trial without the participation of prosecutors. Recognizing that in 2023 Norfolk was seeing an increasing incidence of ABC store thefts, Commonwealth’s Attorney Ramin Fatehi informed the Norfolk Police that he would assign a prosecutor to any serial ABC store thief the police were able to charge. Mr. Ratcliff’s cases were among those that the Norfolk Police identified and that the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office became involved in.

On Jan. 7, Mr. Ratcliff entered an agreement to plead guilty to three counts of misdemeanor shoplifting and serve 21 months in jail with another 15 months suspended on the conditions that he be of uniform good behavior and be banned from Virginia ABC stores for one year following his release. Judge Tasha D. Scott accepted Mr. Ratcliff’s plea agreement, found him guilty, and sentenced him per the agreement.

“Mr. Ratcliff was one of a handful of people who were responsible for a significant share of the ABC store larcenies in Norfolk over the last two years,” said Commonwealth’s Attorney Ramin Fatehi. “That is why, even though the State has never funded prosecutors to staff misdemeanor cases, I allocated resources I did not have to staff these cases. By being smart on crime, we have been able to make a difference in ABC larcenies without repeating the mistakes of the 1990s. More broadly, however, it is totally unjust that our state government provides zero dollars to local prosecutors anywhere to be involved in misdemeanors. That is why I have worked with a bipartisan group of prosecutors to advocate for the Virginia Access to Justice Act in the General Assembly this session so that every victim and every accused can have the fairest trial possible.”

Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Daniel G. Engel prosecuted Mr. Ratcliff’s case, and Norfolk Police Officer David. M. Gribble led the investigation.

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