A pair of Los Angeles County residents were found guilty Friday of participating in armed robberies of local businesses last year.
Diavion Mouton, 23, of Carson, and Rodney Evans, 23, of the Vermont Square neighborhood of Los Angeles, were each found guilty in L.A. federal court of one count of conspiracy to interfere with commerce by robbery — known as a federal Hobbs Act crime — two counts of Hobbs Act robbery and two counts of brandishing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
According to evidence presented at the four-day trial, Evans participated in two armed robberies on Aug. 14, 2023, respectively, at Rite Aid stores in Bellflower and in the Vermont Square neighborhood.
During the robberies, multiple firearms were brandished, and store employees were forced to open the store safe. In total, Evans and his co-conspirators — ringleaders Makai Sanders, 23, and Kenyatta Jones, 23, both of Hawthorne — stole a total of $12,410, federal prosecutors said.
Evidence shows that Mouton participated in two armed robberies on Sept. 19, 2023, at a Walgreens store in Glendale and a Wingstop restaurant in Lynwood. She was the getaway driver for both robberies, in which Sanders and Jones brandished firearms and stole a total of $1,776 from the businesses, prosecutors said.
During the Walgreens robbery, Sanders and Jones robbed a customer who was at a register attempting to purchase some items, held the victim at gunpoint, and stole the victim’s iPhone. A store employee, a handgun pointed at her back, was ordered to the store’s safe with the barrel of the gun used to push her to get her to move faster.
In fear for her life, the employee began walking to the back of the store where the safe was located. Once at the back of the store, the employee noticed the robber was distracted talking to the other robber. The employee then locked herself inside the store’s staffing office and called 911.
In addition to the cash, Sanders and Jones stole four iPhones belonging to victims at the Walgreens store. The suspects then exited the store and drove away in a white Honda Civic, which law enforcement later discovered had been booked via a peer-to-peer carsharing company and was driven by Mouton, according to evidence presented at trial.
Using phone records and GPS data, law enforcement tracked the defendants down and arrested Sanders, Jones, and Mouton on Sept. 26, 2023. At the time of their arrests, Jones and Sanders possessed handguns consistent with the firearms used in the Walgreens robbery. Law enforcement also found clothing — including the black mask with a red logo — consistent with what one of the suspects wore during that robbery, prosecutors said.
U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner scheduled a March 31 sentencing hearing, at which time Evans and Mouton will face a sentence of between 14 years and life in federal prison, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Sanders and Jones pleaded guilty last month to one count of conspiracy to commit Hobbs Act robbery, one count of Hobbs Act robbery, and one count of brandishing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence. In their plea agreements, Sanders and Jones admitted to committing a dozen armed robberies of local businesses — mostly chain-store pharmacies — in August and September of 2023. Both defendants face a sentence of between seven years and life imprisonment at their sentencing hearings, scheduled for March 17.
Sanders and Jones have agreed to be sentenced to 25 years in federal prison.
Co-defendant Adrian Timothy Bedran, 24, of Rosemead, pleaded guilty in September to one count of Hobbs Act robbery. He is free on $50,000 bond and awaits sentencing on January 13.
Co-defendants DeAngel Daryl Alvarez, 24, of the Athens area of South Los Angeles, is believed to be a fugitive, and Kevin Antwon Gadley, 20, of San Fernando, is in state custody on unrelated charges, prosecutors noted.
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