Jewelry robber who held employee at gunpoint as others took $1.7 million headed to prison - Fort Worth Star Telegram
Jewelry robber who held employee at gunpoint as others took $1.7 million headed to prison - Fort Worth Star Telegram
A gunman who held a Haltom's Jewelers employee in Grapevine at gunpoint while accomplices robbed the store of $1.7 million in jewelry in 2014 has been sentenced to 262 months in federal prison.
Federal authorities identified the suspect as Willie Thompson Jr., 53, of Oklahoma City.
U.S. District Judge Reed C. O'Connor sentenced Thompson this week after the Oklahoma City man had pleaded guilty in August to robbing the Grapevine business in October 2014 along with four other people.
He had pleaded guilty to one count of interference with commerce by robbery and two other charges related to the holdup.
Thompson has been in custody since April 2017.
In November, Melvin Lewis Andrews, 55, of Oklahoma City, was sentenced to 188 months in federal prison for his role in the holdup.
Federal agents have said five people rushed into the Haltom's Jewelers in Grapevine in a takeover-style holdup.
DNA from clothing discarded after the robbers fled the Grapevine holdup linked four of the suspects to the robbery. Once the four were arrested, one of them identified the fifth, according to federal court records.
The other three suspects have been identified as Kim Lawson-Brown, Garland Gilmore Lenoir III and a suspect identified as T.G. The status of those three suspects was unavailable Wednesday.
Lawson-Brown buzzed the store during business hours on Oct. 3, 2014, and then stopped as if her shoe was stuck in the door, court records state.
Then Andrews, Thompson, Lenoir and T.G. rushed in.
The robbers fled with merchandise and drove off in a stolen vehicle. Grapevine police pursued them, but discontinued the chase in the interest of public safety, records show. Authorities later learned the robbers discarded their outer clothing and were wearing different outfits underneath.
The suspects were later arrested and charged in several other states in jewelry store holdups. T.G. was arrested in Arkansas, Lenoir was taken into custody in a jewelry store robbery in Denton, and Andrews and Thompson were captured in California. Lawson-Brown was arrested but information about her arrest was not available Wednesday.
Domingo Ramirez Jr.: 817-390-7763, @mingoramirezjr
