Two San Fernando Valley residents and a Long Beach man face a slew of charges in connection with a two-week crime spree across Los Angeles and Orange counties that ended with a doughnut shop employee firing his gun at the suspects.
A federal grand jury charged the defendants — a 36-year-old man and 49-year-old woman from North Hollywood and a 23-year-old man from Long Beach — with one count each of conspiracy to commit interference with commerce by robbery (the Hobbs Act), three counts of Hobbs Act robbery and one count of attempted Hobbs Act robbery, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced on Thursday, Feb. 20.
The men have also been charged with an additional count of Hobbs Act robbery and four counts of brandishing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, and the North Hollywood man also faces charges for reportedly being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition.
Between Jan. 29 and Feb. 14, the defendants are accused of robbing 12 businesses, including a smoke shop in Tustin; nine 7-Eleven stores in North Hollywood, Burbank, Torrance, Van Nuys, Long Beach, Glendale and Pasadena and two doughnut shops in Los Angeles and Downey.
Prosecutors allege many of the robberies happened late at night, when the men would enter each business, and, in some of the robberies, the North Hollywood woman would outside as a getaway driver.
During the crime spree, the North Hollywood man and woman allegedly fled to Las Vegas on Feb. 6, where they were married before they returned to California and committed another robbery on Feb. 8, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The spree ended after the trio attempted to rob a doughnut shop in Downey in the early hours of Valentine’s Day, according to court documents.
An employee told authorities he saw one of the men had a handgun in his front waistband, ran to the back kitchen area and grabbed his own firearm to defend himself. The employee fired at least one shot, hitting the wall behind the men and getting them to run out of the shop, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Police witnessed the attempted robbery and pulled over a car with the three defendants and later found a firearm in the vehicle, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The defendants, who have been in federal custody since last year. will be arraigned in coming weeks. A trial is scheduled to begin on May 6.
If convicted of all charges, the defendants face up to 20 years in federal prison for each violation of the Hobbs Act. The men face a minimum sentence of seven years in federal prison for each count of brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence, and the charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition carry up 15 years in federal prison each.
The charges are part of a superceding indictment following some initial charges that were filed against the trio in May 2024.