Friday, February 04, 2000
Woman indicted in jewelry robbery
$370,000 haul in smash-and-grab
BY BEN L. KAUFMAN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
A Los Angeles woman was charged Wednesday with being the scout and getaway driver for a flying squad of robbers who raided jewelry stores around the country.
EDB Diamond Showroom in Montgomery was one of Cay Cee Evans' targets, according to a federal indictment handed up Wednesday.
According to court records, she flew from her home in Los Angeles to Columbus on May 2, 1997, drove to Cincinnati with a co-conspirator and met four others to plan the raid.
Ms. Evans, now 25, checked out the displays and security and her armed friends used the information in the May 3, 1997, smash-and-grab robbery, the indictment said.
Court records indicate jewels worth more than $370,000 were taken but did not say whether any were recovered.
Ms. Evans was charged under the federal Hobbs Act with robbery and conspiracy to commit robbery. U.S. Attorney Sharon J. Zealey said the Hobbs Act prohibits the obstruction of interstate commerce of goods by robbery or conspiracy to commit robbery.
David Welker, agent in charge of the FBI's violent crimes squad in Cincinnati, said such interstate hit-and-run robberies reflect today's mobility and career choices. “They did it because that was what they did for a living.”
Typically, jewels were resold in the Los Angeles area, where the gang originated.
No major breakthrough identified Ms. Evans, Agent Welker said. Agents from 10 FBI field offices collated information from similar crimes around the country and, working with Montgomery Detective Mike Plaatje, “we just put the pieces together.”
Agent Welker said the leader of the gang, John Fitzgerald Bracken, 34, pleaded guilty to the EDB robbery and other crimes and was sent to prison for 448 months. One member of the gang was killed by police after a similar robbery in suburban Cleveland, and two more were arrested with Mr. Bracken.
FBI agents said the gang was suspected of at least 12 other robberies in the past two years.
No court date has been set for Ms. Evans. Meanwhile, she is serving a federal prison term for similar robberies in Beaumont, Texas, and Daytona Beach, Fla.
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