Two men have been convicted of robbing an off-duty Secret Service agent at gunpoint after the agent had finished working at a Los Angeles fundraiser that President Joe Biden attended, prosecutors said Monday.
The robbery happened on June 15 after the agent, who was not identified, had attended the star-studded campaign fundraiser in Los Angeles, before Biden dropped out of the race to be Democratic presidential nominee in this year's election.
DNA on the gun and the agent’s stolen belongings connected one of the men, Jamonte Fitzgerald Johnson, 32, of Fontana, to the robbery and led to the arrests of him and two others, the release said.
The agent was walking from his parked car in a residential neighborhood in Tustin, about 35 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles, when a man got out of a gray SUV and approached him, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office said in a news release.
The man, later identified as Johnson, pointed a gun at the agent and grabbed the agent’s laptop bag, the DA's office said.
Johnson dropped the gun as he was returning to the SUV after the robbery, which was recovered by Tustin detectives, authorities said.
The agent’s stolen cellphone, radio and other belongings were also later recovered in the area, discarded by the attackers as they escaped, prosecutors said.
Johnson was arrested in Riverside on July 11.
He was described as a “third striker,” which in California means he has been convicted of two serious or violent felonies. His previous strike convictions were for an attempted residential burglary in San Bernardino in 2012 and a residential burglary in 2013 in San Bernardino, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said Johnson is also on federal parole for weapons violations.
A jury convicted Johnson on Monday in connection with the robbery, finding him guilty of a felony count of second-degree robbery, a felony count of possession of a firearm by a felon and two felony enhancements of personal use of a firearm.
He faces a maximum sentence of 35 years to life in state prison when he is sentenced on Nov. 22.
Meanwhile, E’shon Dwayne Dodson, 21, of Compton, was arrested in Los Angeles on July 17.
He was also found guilty by a jury Monday of a felony count of second-degree robbery and a felony enhancement of being armed with a firearm during the commission of a felony.
He is set to be sentenced on Jan. 10 and faces a maximum sentence of six years in state prison.
The agent fired several shots during the robbery and wounded Bertran Claude Bell, 38, of Los Angeles, who was in the gray SUV, the release said. Bell was hospitalized in Los Angeles and was treated for gunshot wounds sustained in the confrontation.
He was arrested in Los Angeles on July 24, pleaded guilty the same month to a felony count of second-degree robbery and sentenced to six years in state prison.
Attorneys for the men did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in a statement: “Today’s convictions are yet another example of how crime doesn’t pay in Orange County and that justice will be swift and it will be decisive.”