The getaway driver in the armed robbery of a $1 million emerald-encrusted watch from a tourist sitting on the patio of a restaurant at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel last year was sentenced Monday to 2 1/2 years behind bars and ordered to pay $30,000 in restitution.
Jamer Mauricio Sepulveda Salazar, 22, of Colombia, pleaded guilty in March in downtown Los Angeles federal court to one count of interference with commerce by robbery — known as a federal Hobbs Act crime, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
A co-defendant, Jesus Eduardo Padron Rojas, 19, of Venezuela, pleaded guilty to the same offense and is set to be sentenced next month.
Meanwhile, a mystery lingers over how Sepulveda and Padron appeared to come into possession of a handgun registered to Christopher Dorner, the notorious former LAPD officer who killed four people before dying at the end of a standoff with police 12 years ago.
The two robbers are believed to be part of a “crime tourism” group composed of foreign nationals who travel to the United States to engage in high-value theft.
The heist on the afternoon of Aug. 7, 2024, targeted a watch worn by a British tourist sitting with his wife and two daughters on the patio of the hotel cafe. Prosecutors said one of the suspects approached and pointed a black semi-automatic handgun at the victim and pulled back the slide of the handgun, chambering a round.
While the first suspect held the victim at gunpoint, the second suspect approached and snatched the silver Patek Philippe watch, estimated to be worth $1 million, from the victim’s wrist, prosecutors said.
The watch was later recovered in Miami following an investigation into a separate watch theft that took place in Florida months earlier.
Both suspects then left the scene and eventually entered a blue Toyota Corolla, with Sepulveda serving as the getaway driver, according to papers filed in Los Angeles federal court.
Law enforcement executed a search warrant at an Airbnb in Exposition Park where the South Americans were reported to have stayed. During the search, officers found a Glock handgun registered to Dorner. Later that day, authorities conducted a traffic stop on a Chevrolet Equinox and identified Sepulveda and Padron inside the vehicle, according to court papers.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office believes the Equinox was involved in a previous armed robbery in the 400 block of Doheny Road in Beverly Hills on Aug. 5, 2024, during which a $30,000 Rolex was stolen.
It remained unclear how the suspects came into possession of a weapon registered to Dorner, who went on a murderous rampage in 2013 that gripped the Southland. His killing spree claimed the lives of two police officers, along with the daughter of a former LAPD captain and her fiance.
The killings prompted a massive manhunt that ultimately led to Big Bear, where authorities engaged in an extended gun battle with Dorner, who was holed up in a cabin that eventually caught fire and burned to the ground. Dorner was found dead in the burned-out cabin.
It was unclear if the gun registered to Dorner was the one used in the Beverly Hills robbery, but authorities said no other weapons have been recovered.