A 22-year-old South Los Angeles probationer and reputed gang member pleaded guilty Thursday to federal charges for robbing an undercover U.S. Secret Service agent at gunpoint.
Tyre Jordan “Reckless” Simmons entered the plea to charges of robbery, assaulting a federal officer with a deadly weapon and using a firearm during a crime of violence, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Sentencing was set for March 14.
Simmons and Richard Taron “Profit” Henderson were named in a six-count federal indictment in April alleging a transaction involving counterfeit currency and the armed robbery of the undercover agent last winter.
Henderson previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy, robbery, assaulting a federal officer with a deadly weapon, using a firearm during a crime of violence and dealing counterfeit money. He is scheduled to be sentenced in February.
Simmons was convicted of robbery in Los Angeles County Superior Court in 2016 and was on probation at the time of the assault on the Secret Service agent, prosecutors said.
Last Oct. 18, Henderson sold 250 counterfeit $20 bills amid a Secret Service investigation into the trafficking of counterfeit money. As the probe continued, Henderson negotiated a deal to sell $40,000 in bogus bills. However, the deal was merely a pretense to rob the undercover agent who was posing as a buyer of the fake money, according to the indictment.
On March 26, Henderson arranged a meeting in South Los Angeles and prepared for it by stuffing clothes into a duffel bag to make it appear that the bag was filled with counterfeit bills.
Prosecutors said Henderson dispatched Simmons to meet with the agent. During the meeting, Simmons produced a Taurus 9mm handgun, pointed it in the face of the undercover agent and robbed him of $4,500 in genuine United States currency and the keys to the undercover Secret Service vehicle. In committing the robbery, Henderson and Simmons put the life of the undercover agent in jeopardy by using a dangerous weapon, federal prosecutors said.
Both defendants face up to 50 years for the charges related to the robbery, plus a mandatory seven-year sentence related to the use of the firearm, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.