Authorities charged five people for robbing Heller Jewelers in San Ramon of $1.1 million worth of watches and jewelry in March.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of California, in San Francisco announced Wednesday it charged Sunia Mafileo Faavesi, 30, Ryan Kentrell Montgomery, 35, Paul Christopher Tonga, 33, John Ioane Tupou, 30, and Kyle Vehikite, 34, with conspiracy to commit robbery affecting interstate commerce.
Four of the five accused have been arrested and made their first court appearance July 27. Tupou is still at large.
Prosecutors said in a statement the five suspects planned and executed the armed heist, which involved at least eleven people.
The complaint alleges while some of the suspects were inside the store or immediately outside it during the armed robbery, others acted as lookouts and get-away drivers of at least four waiting vehicles.
The robbery took place at the story at the busy City Center San Ramon in the middle of the afternoon. Prosecutors say multiple bystanders, including children, fled the masked and armed robbers.
The complaint affidavit alleges the suspects cased the location a week before the robbery and then returned to rob the store on March 17. It says investigators identified one of the suspects by evaluating GPS information emitted from a stolen Rolex watch.
Investigators conducted a covert investigation leading them to identify each of the five defendants and to piece together the movements of the defendants the day of the robbery.
Faavesi, Montgomery, Tonga, and Vehikite were arrested on July 26. The government filed a motion asking that they be detained pretrial.
The accused face a maximum sentence of 20 years, and a fine of $250,000 if convicted. The court also may order defendants to pay restitution and to serve an additional period of supervised release to begin after a prison term.
19 comments
If the Feds are in charge, there is probably a RICO probe happening. Good bust, I hope they get
all the rest of them. All the small timers hitting Contra Costa should think twice.
The G-Men are out in force!
Translation:
Diana Becton, our completely worthless DA, refused to prosecute so San Ramon PD sought Federal charges so that something would actually be done.
Wrong it was a federal case from the beginning Sir.
Maybe the Feds took over from the beginning because they knew Becton would not prosecute.
Firestone 11R
It was a State case from the beginning, initially investmented by the San Ramon Police Department which enforces State Law.
Infact nothing prevents the DA AND the US Attorney General from prosecuting them for the same crime.
“The accused face a maximum sentence of 20 years”!
In California, we no longer should be listing the “Maximum” sentence, since the maximum time is never fulfilled. I’d like to see the “Minimum” sentence posted as that is what is truly more relevant.
Another nation heard from. Hope they get a lengthy sentence.
Sounds like a Dustin Hoffman film … Staight Time … snubbed wrongly at the Oscars imho.
*Straight Time https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0078326/
Let the police/law enforcement do their jobs and our society will be safe and the public will be much happier.
I believe the agitation of many citizens now is actually their worry over the lack of safety in our society.
… and yes … I been drinkin’ … home-brewed rice spirits w/dried dates … wonderful combo
Do your dried dates like it too?
Did they ever catch the Tiffany robbers in Walnut Creek? Never heard a word about it again. That was pretty bold!
Likely sold 1.1 mil. for a couple hundred bucks…….”that’s why they are crooks…great business skills”
Great news…otherwise Becton would have already released them on a cashless bail.
Skip the trial and feed them to wild dogs.
Far better than allowing CoCo DA to plea bargain down to a slap on the wrist
There case will take up to 3 years to finish I had a federal case and took that long to finish
Comments are closed.