A South Bay man faces sentencing Monday for committing a dozen armed robberies of chain pharmacy stores over a six-week span two years ago, sometimes assaulting and injuring victims.
Makai Sanders, 23, of Hawthorne pleaded guilty in November 2024 to federal counts of conspiracy, Hobbs Act robbery — robbery affecting interstate commerce — and brandishing a firearm in relation to a crime of violence, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The robberies of Rite Aid and Walgreens stores in Long Beach, Bellflower, South Los Angeles, Pasadena, Whittier, Lakewood, Monterey Park, Burbank and Glendale took place between August and September of 2023.
Sanders and co-defendant Kenyatta Jones, 23, would enter the stores about an hour before closing, armed with handguns and stealing victims’ cell phones. The pair then went to the stores’ staffing offices and took money from store safes, prosecutors said.
During a 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 his crime partner. The employee then locked herself inside the store’s staffing office and called 911, court papers show.
In addition to cash, Sanders and Jones stole four iPhones belonging to victims at the Walgreens store. They 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, prosecutors said.
Using phone records and GPS data, law enforcement tracked the defendants down and arrested Sanders, Jones and a third person 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 a black mask with a red logo — consistent with what one of the thieves wore during the robbery, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Jones pleaded guilty to the same charges as Sanders, and was sentenced last week in Los Angeles federal court to 25 years in prison.
Hell I’m over here at lindale canyon and I got all these incompetent law enforcement entering this property where there is a bank at. Now the bank is inside of a shopping center does it mean the whole shopping center is the bank premises and if so why are they not in jail for federal aggravated armed robbery of a bank. For just being on the land hanging out on the land how telling everybody that they need to move off the public land because they’re not welcome in the public right because the law enforcement have no clue what the laws are about the public more or less any laws about the drinking and driving in the attempted murder was a loaded firearm on their hip as well as vehicular homicide while they’re driving their fucking drunk ass around the fucking city right but how we’re going to allow this kind of shit to continue on after 97 fucking days 10 to 30 times a day on the same fucking lot right no wonder the fucking service is so fucking incompetent