A South Los Angeles man was sentenced today to 77 months in federal prison for committing six armed robberies of local businesses, mostly 7-Eleven stores, during a two-week crime spree in late 2021.
Colin Powell Lacey, 29, of the Hyde Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, was sentenced by United States District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong.
Lacey pleaded guilty in August 2022 to one count of conspiracy to commit interference with commerce by robbery (Hobbs Act).
From November 13, 2021, to November 29, 2021, Lacey participated in the robbery of six businesses – five of which were 7-Eleven convenience stores. During the robberies, Lacey typically entered the stores, pointed a handgun at the store’s cashier and stole money – usually hundreds of dollars in cash belonging to the business.
For example, on November 29, 2021, Lacey and his co-conspirator, Kyle Richard Williams, 26, of Inglewood, traveled together to a smoke shop located in the Mid-City area of Los Angeles. Williams entered the store, pointed a handgun at the cashier and stole $442 while Lacey waited outside the store before fleeing with Williams.
That same night, Lacey and Williams robbed 7-Eleven stores in Hollywood and Mid-City, with Lacey pointing a handgun at the cashier at the Hollywood store and Williams pointing a handgun at the cashier at the Mid-City business, making off with $600 and $100, respectively. Lacey and Williams then fled in Lacey’s Hyundai.
On December 30, 2021, Lacey and Williams attempted to rob a 7-Eleven in El Segundo. Williams pointed a handgun at the store employee and demanded money. Lacey and Williams fled together after the employee showed Williams that the cash register was empty.
In total, Lacey participated in the armed robbery of six stores, including two other 7-Elevens in Hollywood and one 7-Eleven in West Hollywood. Lacey and Williams netted a total of $2,859 from the robberies.
Lacey and Williams have been in federal custody since March 2022.
Williams pleaded guilty in July 2022 to one count of conspiracy to commit Hobbs Act robbery, two counts of Hobbs Act robbery, and one count of attempted Hobbs Act robbery. In December 2022, Judge Frimpong sentenced Williams to six years in federal prison.
The FBI, the Los Angeles Police Department, and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department investigated this matter.
Assistant United States Attorney Jeremiah M. Levine of the Violent and Organized Crime Section and Assistant United States Attorney Jeffrey M. Chemerinsky, Chief of the Violent and Organized Crime Section, prosecuted this case.
Damn, if he had only robbed one more 7–11 it would have been crook gets 77 months for robbing 7 7-11’s!
6 years for armed robbery?! Are you for effing real?
Sounds fair enough
He needs to thank George Floyd’s family since he’s yet ANOTHER beneficiary of the George Floyd Lotto.
What a joke should be 2 years
Recall Gascon vote him out
You can thank Council member John Erickson who lead the attacks on incumbent Jackie Lacey, one of the few Black female DA’s in the country, in order to
help George Gascon get elected. Gascon has been an unmitigated disaster for law enforcement and has made LA County unsafe.
So you feel 6 1/2 years is too harsh of a sentence, that it should only be 2 years?
This was tried in federal court, right? So how is this Gascon’s fault one way or the other?
I was genuinely surprised to see the serious nature of the charges and how firmly they were prosecuted, along with the proportionate sentence. I was expecting to see some restorative justice or some other bs.
Then I saw it was a Federal prosecution, not one led by the clownshow in the County DAs office.
What a world. One where we need the Federal government to put violent dangerous fellons behind bars, knowing our elected DA will be soft on crime
For some reason people are mistakenly thinking that the DA is soft on violent crime, that’s a falsehood. What he doesn’t do is fill the jails with vagrants or people stealing lip balm from the Dollar Tree. Petty theft and homelessness are not sufficient reason to fill our jails to the rim, it’s extremely expensive. Go to a courtroom and watch a case of armed robbery or domestic violence, they throw the book at them. Someone I know is doing year 10 on a seven year plea deal with two more left as possible parole, he laid hands on his… Read more »
My tax preparer stole my identity and messed up my life big-time, and I am still, several years later, trying to straighten things out. I was not his only victim. On the morning of his trial Gascon dropped the charges because, as he said, no one was hurt! The deputy sheriff who had worked tirelessly on this case was very demoralized and I think he was as equally disappointed as I and the other victims. This was not my tax preparers first run-in with the law. He had a criminal history, so it wasn’t like Gascon thought this was a… Read more »