Fighting for Justice with Marqui Clardy Sr.

Marqui Clardy's projected release date looks like a year from a science fiction novel: 2808.

His sentence of five life terms - one for each person he robbed - makes him one of a small fraternity of men sentenced to life in prison for robbery. Only seven people in Hampton Roads received such a severe sentence for robbery charges in 2007 and 2008, and the majority of them had seriously wounded their victims.

The judge who heard his trial cited a number of reasons for giving him a long sentence. Last year, Clardy used Craigslist.com, a site for classified ads, to lure his victims. He held a gun to their heads, cursed them, and robbed them of their items for sale. Clardy contacted the victims after the robberies and tried to keep them from coming to court.

"It still hasn't fully hit me," Clardy said in the Norfolk City Jail, where he awaits transfer to prison. "I keep telling myself something is going to happen."

Clardy, 25, grew up in Portsmouth around kids he figured would spend their lives in the streets. He said he knew early that he did not want that for himself. "I wanted to surround myself with positive people."