A Los Angeles man who acted as a lookout during the armed robbery of an armored truck was sentenced Friday to nearly 14 years in prison.
James Russell Davis, a member of a group of law enforcement officials nicknamed the “Chesapeake Bandits,” pleaded guilty in February to one count of interference with commerce by robbery and one count of discharging a firearm in furtherance a violent crime.
The 2022 robbery, in which an accomplice fired a gun, netted the group more than $160,000 in cash. Davis, who was captured by the FBI, has been in federal custody since March 2023.
U.S. District Judge Fernando L. Aenlle-Rocha ordered Davis, 35, to pay $166,640 in restitution.
“When people commit crimes with guns, tragedies occur,” the U.S. attorney said. Martín Estrada said in a statement. “That is why it is so important that we bring the weight of federal prosecution against perpetrators of violent firearms crimes.”
In a sentencing memorandum, Jay Lichtman, Davis' attorney, asked the judge to consider his client's “tragic personal history,” including physical and emotional harm as a child.
Lichtman also noted that when Davis was about 25 years old, he was hit in the chest by a stray bullet while attending a youth basketball game. Lichtman wrote that the bullet remained lodged above the aortic arch of the heart, “causing Mr. Davis daily physical pain and emotional stress.”
“Mr. Davis deeply regrets his involvement in the crimes charged in this case,” Lichtman wrote. “He humbly asks the court to take his personal history and characteristics into account when deciding an appropriate sentence.”
Reached by phone, Lichtman said the judge considered mitigating factors when handing down his sentence.
“Although we would have preferred a lower sentence, it was still below the guidelines,” he said.
Authorities believe the group was behind a series of robberies against armored vehicles throughout the Los Angeles region. They were called the “Chesapeake Bandits” because they carefully planned the heists at a home on Chesapeake Avenue in the West Adams neighborhood of Los Angeles, investigators say.
According to authorities, members forced security guards to the ground at gunpoint, tied them up and grabbed bags of money before fleeing.
In a plea agreement, Davis admitted that in 2022, he and an accomplice investigated a credit union in Hawthorne, where they observed a Sectran truck driver servicing an ATM. On February 14 of that year, he admitted, he and his accomplices stole an armored Sectran Security Services truck by ambushing the driver.
Davis' accomplices were armed with a black semi-automatic pistol and an AR-style rifle, which they pointed at the driver, identified in the agreement as JG.
Davis admitted to acting as a lookout and conducting counter-surveillance in the vicinity.
According to the plea agreement, the group forced JG to the ground by pointing a firearm at his head and then stole bags filled with approximately $166,640 in cash.
“Imagine the terror of being knocked to the ground with a gun pointed at your head,” Krysti Hawkins, acting assistant director in charge of the FBI's Los Angeles field office, said in a statement. “Davis and his accomplice violently ambushed an individual who was simply doing his job so they could keep other people's money.”
The main defendant in the case, Deneyvous Jayan Hobson, 38, pleaded not guilty. His trial is scheduled for September 3.
Hobson is charged with one count of Hobbs Act conspiracy, one count of Hobbs Act robbery, one count of use of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence and one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm. fire and ammunition.
According to FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller, the agency is looking for additional suspects it believes are connected to the series of armed robberies.
