OAKLAND — Prosecutors here have charged a 20-year-old man in connection with the Jan. 30 robbery of a cannabis dispensary transport van where three suspects stole $80,000 in cash, court records show.
Donte Kittling Jr., who raps under the stage name Lil’ Donk, was arrested in late February and charged with one count of carjacking and one count of robbery, authorities said. Prosecutors allege that Kittling and two others used a Maserati and a Hyundai Genesis to cut off a delivery van, ordered the victims out at gunpoint and forced them to open a locked cash vault, stating, “put in the code or you’re going to die.”
Police have identified two other suspects, including a 17-year-old boy, all of whom are considered associates of a gang known as the Oakland-based “Fein Team.” A police raid of the gang late last year resulted in a dozen arrests of suspected gang members and murder charges against three 19-year-old men in Los Angeles, related to a robbery that resulted in a shootout where one of four suspects was killed by the intended victim, court records show.
The robbers wore masks but surveillance footage from the van’s security camera still captured their “distinctive facial features,” police said in court records. Another break in the case was made on Feb. 3, when police pulled over the Hyundai believed to be involved and found property that appeared similar to some taken from the van, authorities said.
One of the men in the Hyundai had conversations on his phone in which he, a 17-year-old boy, and a person they referred to as “Donk” made plans to get together just two hours before the robbery. Police raided Kittling’s mother’s home in Merced on Feb. 27 and arrested him, then he subsequently admitted involvement in the robbery, authorities said in court records.
It is unclear whether the 17-year-old boy also faces charges, but he hasn’t been charged in adult court. The third suspect was arrested during the traffic stop of the Hyundai, but no criminal charges have yet been filed, according to court records.
Kittling’s next court hearing, an arraignment, has been set for March 5, records show.