Oakland Man Gets 15-Year Prison Term For Smash-and-Grab Jewelry Heists Targeting Rolex Watches
SACRAMENTO (CBS SF) -- An Oakland man was sentenced Thursday to 15 years in prison after being convicted in a series of armed robberies of jewelry stores in California and Arizona, federal authorities said.
London Webb, 34, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to interfere with interstate commerce by robbery last October. Aside from his prison sentence, Webb was ordered to pay $691,973 in restitution.
A co-defendant, 33-year-old Dion Johnson II of Sacramento, was sentenced in October to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty in April to the same charge as well as to bank robbery.
A press statement from U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of California Phillip Talbert said Webb participated in the jewelry store heists for the specific purpose of stealing Rolex watches.
According to court documents, Webb's participation in the robbery crew was first identified after the October 2014 robbery of Grebitus Jewelers in the Palladio Mall in Folsom. Webb and another man dressed in black and wearing masks entered the store and smashed a display case with a sledgehammer. The other man pointed a gun at employees and ordered them to lie face down on the floor.
Webb cut himself on the broken glass of the smashed display case while he was removing the Rolex watches and left blood on the display case, the court documents said. Webb and the other man fled the store with $310,800 worth of watches, and police later found their abandoned getaway car with Webb's blood inside the car.
Webb also pleaded guilty to three other smash-and-grab jewelry heists: Kirk's Jewelry in Chico in November 2014, Robert C. Wesley Jewelers in Scottsdale, Arizona in January 2015, and Churchill Jewelers in Santa Barbara, also in January 2015.
