Image via WikipediaPOMONA – Two gang members linked to a string of robberies targeting a videogame retail chain were sentenced today to seven consecutive life terms each, the District Attorney’s Office announced.Pomona Superior Court Judge Mike Camacho sentenced Thomas Stringer Jr., 24, to 160 years to life in state prison. Co-defendant Jimmy McCallum, 20, was sentenced to a prison term of 152 years to life.
Deputy District Attorney Lalit Kundani of the Pomona Branch Office said that Stringer and McCallum were convicted by a jury on Feb. 9 following a three-week trial involving 30 witnesses.
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The defendants also were convicted of one count each of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
Stringer and McCallum, members of the criminal street gang Family Swan Bloods, were charged with co-conspirator Gregory Steven Todd, 23, in September 2009 in connection with robberies at five GameStop stores in Baldwin Park, Los Angeles, Lynwood, Tarzana and West Covina.
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Todd pleaded no contest on Jan. 22 to three counts of second-degree robbery and admitted gang allegations. He is expected to be sentenced on March 25 to 20 years, eight months, under the terms of a negotiated plea agreement.
Beginning in 2009, members of the Family Swan Bloods, the Bee Bops and the Inglewood Family Bloods conspired with one another to carry out a series of armed robberies of GameStop stores and tobacco shops throughout Los Angeles, San Diego and Orange counties. The robberies took place between May and September 2009.
The total loss amounted to more than $1 million and involved more than a dozen victims who were bound, stunned with a taser and terrorized at gunpoint, the prosecutor said.
Image via WikipediaThe case was investigated by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Bureau of Investigation, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and the Baldwin Park, Chula Vista, Huntington Beach, Inglewood, Los Angeles, San Diego, Torrance and West Covina police departments.In May 2010, a Los Angeles County Grand Jury indicted five others in a separate but related case. The indictment – case No. BA361122, unsealed in June 2010 – charges Ahmad Muhammad, 32; Kadufa Hammond, 24; Mohammad Musa Mohammad, 33; and Andrea Kennedy, 24, with 37 felony counts. The indictment remains sealed as to a fifth individual.
The defendants are expected to appear for a pretrial conference on April 8 in Department N of Pomona Superior Court.
