Men from Fontana and Los Angeles found out the hard way that coming to Orange County to commit crimes is a very bad idea.
Jamonte Fitzgerald Johnson, 32, and E’shon Dwayne Dodson, 21, were convicted by an O.C. Superior Court Jury on Monday, Oct. 28, of second-degree robbery. The jury found that they used firearms when they unwisely chose to rob a U.S. Security Service agent who was staying in Tustin after working at a Downtown Los Angeles fundraiser attended by President Joe Biden.
The suspects made off with police equipment when they attacked the unnamed U.S. Secret Service agent.
The Secret Service agent was off-duty when he was walking from his parked car in a residential neighborhood in Tustin just after 9:30 p.m. on Saturday, June 15, 2024 when Johnson, who was armed, ran up and grabbed the agent’s laptop bag, according to the OCDA.
The agent was armed as well however, and he fired several gunshots, striking a third robber — Bertran Claude Bell — who was sitting in a nearby SUV.
One of the three robbers stupidly dropped his gun during the robbery. The robbers panicked after being shot at and also left behind the agent’s stolen cell phone, radio and other belongings. These items were later found by Tustin police detectives, according to the prosecutors.
Investigators later learned that the robbers took Bell to a hospital in Los Angeles to be treated for his gunshot wounds.
Tustin detectives, with the help of state parole officials, found DNA on the gun that was dropped and on the agent’s stolen that tied the items to Johnson, according to the prosecutors.
Johnson was laster arrested in the city of Riverside on July 11, 2024.
The Tustin police detectives and members of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Major Crimes Bureau Burglary-Robbery Task Force arrested Dodson in Watts on July 17 and Bell in Los Angeles on July 24.
Bell rolled over right away as he plead guilty to a felony count of second-degree robbery and on July 29, he was sentenced to six years in prison.
Tustin Police Chief Stu Greenberg noted in an OCDA statement that the suspects all had “significant criminal histories, including multiple weapons violations.”
Johnson is in real trouble as he is a third-striker who was on federal probation for a weapons violation and parole for criminal threats at the time of his arrest for the Tustin robbery, according to the prosecutors.
Bell also had a previous conviction for a 2004 attempted robbery in Los Angeles.
Johnson is set to return to court for sentencing on Nov. 22, while Dodson is scheduled to return on Jan. 10.
