He was arrested after a month of freedom. Now he’s going to prison.

The armed robber who held up a Gulfport gas station July 4, 2015, has been ordered to serve 15 full years in prison, plus an extra 7-year prison term for committing the crime while on probation for another felony conviction.

Dennis Bostwick, 23, of Gulfport, was sentenced on a guilty plea this week to the armed robbery of the Kangaroo gas station at Dedeaux and Three Rivers roads.

Circuit Judge Larry Bourgeois imposed a 30-year prison term and suspended 15 years, requiring 15 years in prison without eligibility for early release, and the remainder to serve on post-release supervision, District Attorney Joel Smith said.

At the time of the crime, Bostwick was on probation for burglarizing a shed in Long Beach in 2012. Smith said Bourgeois revoked Bostwick’s probation and ordered a seven-year prison term to be served consecutive to the 15-year term.

Bostwick pleaded guilty to the armed robbery in Harrison County Circuit Court, admitting he wore a bandana over his face and pulled out a handgun when he entered Kangaroo’s convenience store, Smith said in a news release.

Clerks called police at 5:23 a.m., saying they handed the robber money and he fled. They gave police a description of the man and the car he was driving, Smith said in a news release.

About five minutes after the robbery, a Gulfport police officer saw a car matching the described getaway car one mile from the store.

The officer needed to deploy his Taser after he approached the car, said ADA Matthew Burrell, who prosecuted the case.

“Inside the car, officers located a bandana matching the clerks’ description, a pellet handgun, safe-drop envelopes and a majority of the cash taken during the robbery,” Burrell said.

Bostwick had been out of jail less than a month when he robbed the gas station, the county jail docket indicates. He had been released from jail June 8, 2015, after a month-long stay during which his sentence on the Long Beach burglary had been postponed. During that stay, he also served time for simple assault to create fear.

“It is due to the swift actions of the citizens of our community as well as our law enforcement agencies, that this violent criminal was quickly caught,” Smith said.

“This criminal has earned the prison terms handed down by Judge Bourgeois.”

This story was originally published March 9, 2017 at 12:50 PM with the headline "He was arrested after a month of freedom. Now he’s going to prison.."