The robber, handcuffed and standing in front of the judge, turned and apologized to his victims sitting in the back of the Lancaster County courtroom.
Laquann Parker told the young couple on Monday that he hoped they could forgive him, "put this all behind them and move on."
"No," one of the victims, a young man, shot back, "I don't want to hear it."
Judge Dennis Reinaker, too, told Parker he was more interested in the 21-year-old defendant's behavior than his words of repentance.
Reinaker noted that Parker, of Lancaster, was free on bail for cocaine delivery charges when he committed the robbery.
And, Reinaker added, while awaiting sentencing and writing letters saying "you're really not a bad kid, that you fell in with the wrong crowd, that you've seen the error of your ways and are committed to changing your past behavior," Parker was getting in trouble at Lancaster County Prison "for smoking pot" and "throwing an unidentified liquid on another inmate."
"In this courtroom," Reinaker said, "it's actions that matter."
For five drug delivery charges, two counts of robbery and one count each of burglary and illegal use of a communication facility, Parker was sentenced to a total of 9 to 18 years in state prison and fined $90,000.
It was in May 2009, Assistant District Attorney Ed Pfursich said, that Parker forced his way into the victims' Fairview Avenue apartment and confronted the couple at gunpoint, telling them, "I want everything."
During the course of the robbery, Pfursich said, Parker ordered a woman to remove her clothes.
Luckily, the woman's boyfriend defended her, Pfursich said, by grabbing a baseball bat and hitting Parker, knocking the gun from his hand.
Parker ran from the apartment but was arrested later by city police.
And, Pfursich said, at the time of the incident, Parker was facing five counts of delivering cocaine, most of which were in a drug-free school zone.
"I can guess what you're thinking," defense attorney Roger Renteria told Reinaker. "But there are redeeming things about him."
Most important, Renteria said, is that Parker has accepted responsibility for his behavior, expects to be punished and wants to change for the sake of his loving and supportive family.
Parker added that he wants to learn a trade so that when he is released from prison, he can become a productive member of society.
Reinaker said it was difficult to understand Parker's bad behavior.
Parker, by his own admission, had a good upbringing, a good relationship with his family and good role models in his "hard-working" mother and grandmother.
"But despite all this, you've engaged in a pattern of antisocial, criminal behavior," Reinaker said.
Parker has a long list of prior criminal convictions and a minimal work history, Reinaker noted.
"Apparently, selling drugs and robbing people is more enticing to you than earning an honest living," Reinaker said.
"You strike me as someone who just doesn't care" about himself, his victims or "the negative effects of the drug pollution," he took part in promoting "in our community," Reinaker said.
"It's high time you understood the ramifications of such behavior," Reinaker said, telling Parker that perhaps the sentence "will give you something to care about."