A federal grand jury has charged a Highland man and a San Bernardino man with robbing six cell phone stores in Los Angeles and Ventura counties.
Their alleged violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1951(a): interference with commerce by robbery, carries a maximum imprisonment of 20 years, possibly with a fine.
Tony Tyron Lee Stewart, 21, of Highland and Jerome Belser, 20, of San Bernardino were driven by Rayford Newsome, 23, of Compton to rob T-Mobile stores in Long Beach, Carson, Inglewood, Encino and Camarillo, and a AT&T Wireless store in Woodland Hills in January, according to an affidavit in the indictment by Nicholas Williams, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives task force officer.
The three are responsible for 50 cell store robberies across Southern California, including robberies in San Bernardino, Highland and Colton, in which robbers smashed display cases with hammers and grabbed devices during store hours, according to Williams.
Officers were able to track the three using the GPS location data associated with their cell phones, and by placing a GPS tracker on the getaway car used during some of the robberies, according to Williams.
Their combined robberies caused approximately $240,000 in losses to T-Mobile, according to the company as cited by Williams.
