During a brazen Valentine’s Day heist of an armored truck in Hawthorne, the robber kept his face covered.
But as he bent down to stuff bills from a haul of more than $166,000 into bags, his hoodie rode up — exposing a star tattoo on his lower back.
That tattoo became a major point of focus in the trial this month of Deneyvous Hobson, an accused member of a prolific L.A. armored car robbery crew known as the “Chesapeake Bandits.”
A star tattoo recorded during a robbery in 2022 become a major point of focus in the trial this month of Deneyvous Hobson, an accused member of a prolific L.A. armored car robbery crew known as the “Chesapeake Bandits.”
(U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles)
Hobson, 38, faced conspiracy, robbery, and weapons charges.
Prosecutors told the jury that the star tattoo, captured in surveillance video during the 2022 robbery, matched one in the same location on Hobson’s lower back.
“The evidence of defendant’s guilt is his tattoo,” Asst. U.S. Atty. Jason C. Pang told jurors at the start of trial last week.
During the trial, both sides presented expert witnesses to talk about the tattoo. Alex Alonso, who has worked as a professor in the Cal State university system and recently taught a class about the history of street gangs, was called by the defense.
Alonso testified that he’s seen the five-pointed star used by various gangs in L.A., including the Trouble Gangster Crips, about eight different Hoover gangs, and two factions of the Black P-Stones.
Prosecutors called Dominic Pollio, an LAPD officer who works the gang enforcement detail in the Southwest Division, as their rebuttal witness. He said he’d interacted with hundreds of members of the Black P-Stones this year alone.
Asked if he’d seen the five-pointed star on the lower back of any of the gang members, Pollio said no.
Hobson’s lawyers argued that prosecutors had the wrong man.
“Having a similar tattoo in a similar location does not make you the robber,” Federal Public Defender Michael L. Brown said in closing arguments Tuesday. “The government believes that just by proving to you that Hobson has a tattoo that somehow this is Cinderella, where only one person in the land can fit the size-six glass slipper.”
The jury seemed to think the shoe fit, taking around 40 minutes to come back with its verdict: Guilty on all counts.
A star tattoo recorded during a robbery in 2022 become a major point of focus in the trial this month of Deneyvous Hobson, an accused member of a prolific L.A. armored car robbery crew known as the “Chesapeake Bandits.”
(U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles)
During the six-day trial, prosecutors presented evidence that Hobson and his half brother — co-defendant James Russell Davis, 36 — robbed a Sectran Security Services armored truck by ambushing the truck’s driver as he refilled an ATM on a Monday morning.
Hobson and Davis had cased the Wescom Credit Union three weeks prior to the robbery, prosecutors said.
The armored truck driver, Jose Guzman, testified that as he serviced the ATM on Feb. 14, 2022, a person came up to him and put a gun to his head. He said the robber told him if he tried anything, “they were going to blow my head off.”
“I just wanted to survive,” Guzman said, testifying that the robbers took his weapon, a .40-caliber handgun.
Hobson and two co-conspirators stole approximately $166,640 in cash and checks, according to prosecutors.
As the robbers returned to their car, one of them fired a 9mm handgun, according to prosecutors.
Guzman, who had worked for Sectran for about 11 years, said he quit soon after. He now works for a cement trucking company.
“I didn’t want to risk it anymore,” Guzman said. “I had a young son at home.”
Authorities believe Hobson and Davis were part of a group behind a series of heists targeting armored cars across the Los Angeles region. They were called the “Chesapeake Bandits” because they carefully planned the holdups at a home on Chesapeake Avenue in L.A.’s West Adams neighborhood, investigators say.
Members would force security guards to the ground at gunpoint, zip-tie them and grab money bags before fleeing, according to law enforcement.
Hobson faces a statutory maximum sentence of life in federal prison. He has been in federal custody since February 2023.
Davis, who was captured by the FBI, pleaded guilty in February to robbery and gun charges. He was sentenced to nearly 14 years in prison.
