SANTA CRUZ — A fraction of the two dozen men implicated in a statewide cannabis dispensary crime ring concentrated in Santa Cruz County pleaded guilty last week to charges.
The state Attorney General’s Office-dubbed case “Operation Sticky Fingers,” announced at an August press conference in Live Oak, charged 24 people over nine counties during nine months. The 15 break-ins charged involved mob-style after-hours thefts of about 1,000 pounds of marijuana plants and other cannabis retail items valued at more than $1 million, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said. Details of the case began emerging in mid-August, even as Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bipartisan package of 10 bills establishing tougher punishments for smash-and-grab robberies and property crimes.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta announces charges in August against suspects allegedly engaged in organized retail crime involving cannabis facilities during a Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office press conference. (Shmuel Thaler — Santa Cruz Sentinel file)
Among the 18 co-defendants appearing Thursday morning in Santa Cruz County Superior Court, four were convicted of organized retail theft and sentenced to 90 days in jail and a two-year probation. This week’s series of back-to-back plea changes came as a part of a deal brokered by Deputy Attorney General Bennie Mackey, who is handling the conjoined cases spanning Santa Cruz, Solano, Kern, Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Merced, Fresno, Sonoma and San Diego counties, between October 2023 and July. Six of the break-ins listed in criminal complaints occurred in Santa Cruz County.
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As part of their plea deals, Deron Harrison, Trevon Jamerson, Alvin Lovett and Jordan Rixter also are expected to pay individually calculated restitution amounts, determined by their involvement in the separate retail thefts. Judge Nancy de la Peña gave each man until the end of January, “after the holidays,” to report to the Santa Cruz County Jail to serve their time or be placed with a diversion program, as qualified.
The remaining co-defendants have scheduled hearing dates in December and April to confirm their preliminary hearings. An Oct. 24 date also was set aside as an extended deadline to accept the plea deal offer regarding two defendants. Fellow named defendants in the case include Jaedon Woods, Dante Williams, Kenneth Stanley, Damien Hayes, Rashad Christopher, Luis Lopez, Lavarr Lewis, Anthony Bender, Andrew Keegans, Joseph Russell, Kalif Collins, Mehki Goodspeed, Amari Bailey-Waters, John Griffin, Jayson Russell, Derek Taylor, Antonio Gainey, Robert Lovely and Charlie Jones. None, authorities said, were Santa Cruz County residents.