A Los Angeles man who acted as a lookout in the course of the armed theft of an armored truck was sentenced Friday to almost 14 years in jail.
James Russell Davis, a member of a bunch legislation enforcement officers dubbed the “Chesapeake Bandits,” pleaded responsible in February to a depend of interference with commerce by theft and a depend of discharging a firearm in furtherance of a criminal offense of violence.
The 2022 theft, wherein a co-conspirator fired a handgun, netted the group greater than $160,000 in money. Davis, who was captured by the FBI, has been held in federal custody since March 2023.
U.S. District Decide Fernando L. Aenlle-Rocha ordered Davis, 35, to pay $166,640 in restitution.
“When folks commit crimes with weapons, tragedies occur,” U.S. Atty. Martin Estrada mentioned in a press release. “Because of this it’s so necessary that we carry the load of federal prosecution towards the perpetrators of violent gun crime.”
In a sentencing memo, Jay Lichtman, Davis’ legal professional, requested the choose to think about his consumer’s “tragic private historical past,” together with bodily hurt and emotional harm as a toddler.
Lichtman additionally famous that when Davis was about 25, he was hit within the chest by a stray bullet whereas attending a youth basketball recreation. Lichtman wrote that the bullet has remained lodged over the aortic arch of the center, “inflicting Mr. Davis each day bodily ache and emotional stress.”
“Mr. Davis deeply regrets his involvement within the offenses charged on this case,” Lichtman wrote. “He humbly asks the Courtroom to think about his private historical past and traits in deciding on an acceptable sentence.”
Reached by cellphone, Lichtman mentioned the choose thought of the mitigating elements in handing down his sentence.
“Though we’d have most well-liked a decrease sentence, it was nonetheless under the rules,” he mentioned.
Authorities imagine the group was behind a sequence of heists focusing on armored vehicles throughout the Los Angeles area. They had been referred to as the “Chesapeake Bandits” as a result of they fastidiously deliberate the holdups at a house on Chesapeake Avenue in L.A.’s West Adams neighborhood, investigators say.
Members would pressure safety guards to the bottom at gunpoint, zip-tie them and seize cash luggage earlier than fleeing, in accordance with legislation enforcement.
In a plea settlement, Davis admitted that in 2022, he and a co-conspirator cased a credit score union in Hawthorne, the place they noticed a Sectran truck driver servicing an ATM. On Feb. 14 of that yr, he admitted, he and co-conspirators robbed a Sectran Safety Providers armored truck by ambushing the driving force.
Davis’ co-conspirators had been armed with a black semiautomatic handgun and an AR-style rifle, which they pointed on the driver, recognized within the settlement as J.G.
Davis admitted to performing as a lookout and performing countersurveillance close by.
In response to the plea settlement, the group compelled J.G. to the bottom by holding a firearm to his head, then stole luggage stuffed with roughly $166,640 in money.
“Think about the phobia of being pulled to the bottom with a gun pointed at your head,” Krysti Hawkins, performing assistant director accountable for the FBI’s Los Angeles area workplace, mentioned in a press release. “Davis and his accomplices violently ambushed a person simply doing his job so they may make off with different folks’s cash.”
The lead defendant within the case, Deneyvous Jayan Hobson, 38, has pleaded not responsible. His trial is scheduled for Sept. 3.
Hobson is charged with one depend of Hobbs Act conspiracy, one depend of Hobbs Act theft, one depend of utilizing a firearm in furtherance of a criminal offense of violence and one depend of being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition.
In response to FBI spokesperson Laura Eimiller, the company is looking for further suspects it believes are linked to the sequence of armed robberies.
