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LOS ANGELES (CNS) - A Los Angeles man was sentenced Friday to nearly 14 years behind bars for acting as a lookout in the robbery of an armored truck that netted the culprits more than $160,000 in cash and during which a handgun was fired.
James Russell Davis, 35, of the West Adams neighborhood of Los Angeles, was sentenced to 166 months imprisonment by U.S. District Judge Fernando L. Aenlle-Rocha, who also ordered Davis to pay $166,640 in restitution, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Davis pleaded guilty in February in downtown Los Angeles to one count of interference with commerce by robbery and one count of discharging a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence. He has been in federal custody since March 2023.
The robberies were linked to a group nicknamed the Chesapeake Bandits since investigators believe the suspects were meeting and staging the heists at a home on Chesapeake Avenue in the West Adams neighborhood.
The group committed at least four armored car robberies between February 2022 and February 2023, with two of the armed heists taking place in Inglewood, another in South L.A. and one in Hawthorne, according to the FBI.
Davis was charged along with his half-brother, Deneyvous Hobson, 37, of Los Angeles. A trial date for Hobson has not yet been scheduled.
At least five others were believed to be part of the Chesapeake Bandits, but more than two years after the first robbery, most members of the crew are reportedly either behind bars or dead.
The armed bandits targeted drive-thru ATMs and other businesses, including check cashing locations. The suspects operated by ambushing drivers when they serviced drive-thru ATMs or exited businesses. During the robberies, the victim drivers were zip-tied and held at gunpoint. The suspects then entered the armored cars to steal the money, authorities said.
Davis admitted being part of a group that robbed a Sectran Security Services armored car driver at the Wescom Credit Union in Hawthorne on Valentine's Day 2022 after the driver finished servicing an ATM. A shot was fired during the heist but no one was harmed, papers filed in L.A. federal court show.
The group stole bags filled with about $166,640 in cash belonging to Sectran Security, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
"Imagine the terror of being pulled to the ground with a gun pointed at your head," said Krysti Hawkins, acting assistant director in charge of the FBI's Los Angeles field office.
"Davis and his accomplices violently ambushed an individual just doing his job so they could make off with other people's money," she said. "This significant sentence cannot undo the emotional and psychological damage inflicted on the victim, but we hope it sends a clear message that we will continue to pursue the most violent and persistent offenders and hold them accountable for their blatant disregard for human life and the safety of our communities."