A 40-year-old man was sentenced Thursday to 15 years behind bars and ordered to pay $103,200 in restitution for his role in a crew that robbed pharmacies across the Southland, stealing cash and narcotics at the point of a gun.
Aaron Carter of Fontana pleaded guilty in August in Los Angeles federal court to counts of interference with commerce by robbery and using a firearm in a crime of violence.
He was the last of four defendants to plead guilty in the case.
According to his plea agreement, Carter and his co-defendants robbed pharmacies in Newport Beach, Woodland Hills, Temecula and Fullerton in August and September 2024, and attempted to rob two of the same stores the following month.
An affidavit in the case says that a violent crime task force in Orange County, which was linked to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, had been investigating the pharmacy heists. During each of the robberies, officials said, three male suspects entered the pharmacies wearing hoodies and face masks.
Two of the suspects, armed with guns, would force employees to the ground, steal cash from the registers and violently drag employees around the store, prosecutors said. The third suspect would grab a trash can from inside the pharmacies to carry the stolen drugs, according to the affidavit.
In October 2024, the crew returned to the Woodland Hills pharmacy they had previously robbed, but employees recognized them and locked the doors to the store before they could enter, prosecutors said. The would-be robbers fled.
A week later, Carter and two co-defendants attempted to rob the Temecula store they had hit before, but store employees told them that they did not have access to the safe or the narcotics the defendants were demanding, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. The crew ran back to their vehicle.
After the final unsuccessful robbery, law enforcement attempted to arrest the suspects, but the crew’s getaway driver pulled away at a high speed, eventually striking an unmarked police vehicle. While law enforcement immobilized the getaway car, a 9mm pistol fell out of the vehicle, and Carter and the three other suspects were arrested without further incident, court papers show.
Carter was charged in October 2024 along with Diamond Lucious, 26, of Victorville; Isaac Penaldoza, 35, of San Bernardino; and Kamaria Kendrick, 25, of Menifee.
Lucious was sentenced on Nov. 7 to 15 years in federal prison.
Penaldoza pleaded guilty in June to the same charges as Carter and is set for sentencing on Dec. 4 in downtown Los Angeles. Kendrick pleaded guilty in August to a single federal charge and is set to be sentenced in June 2026.