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Seven people have been arrested in connection with a September home invasion robbery in Irvine, where residents were held at gunpoint and their hands and mouths duct-taped in a failed attempt to steal millions of dollars in cryptocurrency, officials announced Tuesday, Dec. 9.
The final outstanding defendant was arrested by U.S. Marshals last week in Las Vegas after a manhunt, the Orange County District Attorney’s office said.
The break-in happened around 3:30 a.m. on Sept. 23 in the 5000 block of Royale Avenue, when a sleeping man woke up to the sound of breaking glass. He had been asleep with his wife and infant son. He yelled that someone was breaking in to his brother-in-law, the homeowner, according to the district attorney’s office.
The man went downstairs to check out the noise and was held at gunpoint alongside his brother-in-law by intruders, who duct-taped their hands behind their backs and duct-taped their mouths.
The intruders brought two women downstairs. Another woman locked herself and her children in a bedroom and called 911. She opened the door to see what was happening and an intruder took her phone and ran out of the home with both of the other intruders. The phone was found nearby.
The house was targeted and the intruders believed the victims had high-value cryptocurrency, according to the district attorney’s office.
A white Dodge Charger was spotted on a victim’s Tesla camera, outside the home just before the home invasion, prosecutors said. A license plate reader picked up the vehicle and it was found in Fontana about an hour and a half later, Deputy District Attorney Gerard Gully said in court papers.
When police searched the Charger, they found an Orange County Jail inmate ID card that matched one of the suspects and a PayPal debit card belonging to a suspect, as well as ammunition, a ski mask, black sweatshirt, body guard brand gloves, DMV paperwork issued to one of the suspects and a piece of duct tape, according to Gully.
23-year-old Darnell Trevon Anderson Walker, of Corona, was the last defendant to be arrested. He was arrested by marshals in Nevada on Dec. 1 and is in the process of being extradited to Orange County, where he will face criminal charges, according to prosecutors. He is charged with four felony counts of kidnapping to commit robbery, one felony count of first-degree robbery in concert, a felony count of first-degree burglary, six felony enhancements of being armed with a firearm in commission of a felon and six felony enhancements of acting in concert with two or more people to take or destroy any property and now faces a maximum sentence of 44 years to life, plus 10 years.
Six other suspects had already been arrested in connection to the robbery, one of whom had been released after an attempted robbery in Laguna Niguel in July. Prosecutors objected to 25-year-old Montclair man Tommy Levion-Elijah Davis’ release after he was suspected in the July attempted residential burglary, they noted. It was Davis’ inmate ID, DMV paperwork and debit card found in the car, according to court papers.
In connection with the Irvine home invasion robbery, Davis has been charged with six felony counts of committing a secondary offense while released from custody, four felony counts of kidnapping for robbery, a felony count of first-degree robbery, a felony count of first-degree burglary, six felony enhancements of being armed with a firearm in the commission of a felony and five felony enhancements acting in concert with two or more people to take or destroy any property.
Defendants 19-year-old Kahlil Thomas Ware of Riverside County, 25-year-old Lee Roy Ford of Adelanto, 21-year-old Jazamine Louise Garner of Los Angeles, 21-year-old Nathan Sin of Upland and 28-year-old Mike O Clarence Bonam-Hillman of Victorville were all charged with four felony counts of kidnapping to commit robbery, a felony count of first-degree robbery, a felony count of first-degree burglary, six felony enhancements of being armed with a firearm in commission of a felony and six felony enhancements of acting in concert with two or more people to take or destroy any property, and are now facing a maximum sentence of 44 years to life, plus 10 years, if convicted on all counts.
Davis allegedly identified himself and Ford as “lookouts” and said he was offered $10,000 for the use of his car. He also alleged the family was targeted because they had $3.8 million in cryptocurrency and identified Sin as the group’s “ringleader,” Gully said in court papers.
No cryptocurrency was stolen during the takeover, Irvine Police officer Ziggy Azarcon said.
Law enforcement connected other suspects to the crime partially due to surveillance footage from a Walmart, where the duct tape was purchased, Gully said.
Tattoos on Sin’s hands, seen in photos he sent to Davis as part of instructions for the robbery, linked him to the the alleged robbery, the prosecutor said.
Walker was identified as a part of the group by Davis, allegedly, who said he knew Walker from previously working at a job in Ontario.
Davis, Ware and Bonam-Hillman were being held without bail at the Orange County Jail, the district attorney’s office said. Ford is out on bail and Garner is being held at the Orange County Jail on $100,000 bail. Sin is being held without bail, prosecutors said.
“There is no escaping the long arm of Orange County law enforcement,” Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in a statement. “Irvine detectives worked for months tracking down these suspects, and in collaboration with the Orange District Attorney’s Office, the U.S. Marshals Service, and the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, we are doing everything we can to collectively bring these criminals to justice.”
City News Service contributed to this report.