OAKLAND — Alameda County prosecutors have struck plea offers with two alleged robbers, each of whom had been accused of luring their victims right into a false sense of safety with the assistance of a suspected prostitute.
In a single case, Nicholas Lewis, 31, was sentenced to 9 days he already served in jail plus probation after pleading no contest to grand theft. In one other, Luis Silva, 24, additionally pleaded no contest to grand theft for a two-year probation time period, court docket information present.
The instances had been separate however concerned related allegations. Lewis was accused of robbing and pepper-spraying a person with the assistance of 18-year-old Janiya Brown Lee. Police say a 69-year-old sufferer was robbed on the Journey Inn on the 400 block of West MacArthur Boulevard in Oakland on the night time of Jan. 11. On the witness stand, he denied in search of the corporate of a prostitute, explaining that, “I’m a married man.”
Brown Lee’s case was ultimately dismissed, court docket information present. Her lawyer argued on the preliminary listening to that she was younger and “impressionable” and had doubtless been manipulated into the state of affairs.
Silva was accused of robbing a person at an area Motel 6 after he picked up Monica Trujillo-Ramirez, 29, at a high-prostitution neighborhood and went to the resort along with her. Trujillo-Ramirez was sentenced to 1 yr of probation after pleading no contest to theft, information present.
The 2 incidents had been a part of a string of comparable crimes involving males who allegedly got here to Oakland trying to commerce cash for intercourse, solely to fall prey to theft plots. Previous examples embody one from final yr, the place 4 males and an alleged intercourse employee from Mississippi had been charged with burglarizing a resort and robbing a person who was shot throughout the ordeal. All of them have taken plea offers for sentences starting from two years of probation to 2 years in jail, besides one, who jumped bail after accepting a pea deal and has a warrant for his arrest, court docket information present.