Two people found guilty of committing armed robberies in Los Angeles County, with one acting as a getaway driver, could face life in prison, federal prosecutors said Friday.
Diavion Deshawna Mouton, a 23-year-old Carson woman, and Rodney Darrin Maxwell Evans, a 23-year-old man from the Vermont Square neighborhood of South Los Angeles, each face a mandatory minimum sentence of 14 years in federal prison, but are coming eligible for the maximum possible sentences of life imprisonment, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.
They were both convicted during a jury trial on Friday and will be sentenced at a court hearing on March 31, 2025.
Although the pair were not involved in the same crimes, they took part in robberies involving the same broader network of people — including two individuals who federal prosecutors have described as the “ringleaders.”
Makai Yusef Sanders and Kenyatta Kamar Jones, both 23-year-old Hawthorne residents, pleaded guilty Nov. 26 and agreed to each be sentenced to 25 years in prison. They admitted to committing 12 armed robberies of LA-area retailers, most of which were large pharmacies, in August and September last year.
On August 14, 2023, Evans, along with Sanders and Jones, participated in two of the robberies – at Rite Aid stores in Bellflower and Vermont Square – brandishing firearms and forcing employees to open a safe. Prosecutors say they stole a total of $12,410.
About a month later, on September 19, 2023, Mouton acted as a getaway driver for two armed robberies involving Sanders and Jones, during which they again brandished firearms and, according to prosecutors, stole approximately $1,776. One of the crimes occurred at a Wingstop in Lynwood, while the other was at a Walgreens in Glendale, where Sanders and Jones held a customer and an employee at gunpoint.
They held a customer paying at the cash register at gunpoint before stealing the person’s iPhone. And when they ordered a store employee to open a safe, they pointed a gun at her back — using the barrel of the gun to make her move faster.
“Fearing for her life, the employee began walking to the back of the store where the safe was located,” said a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California. “Once at the back of the store, the employee noticed that the robber was distracted while talking to the other robber. The employee then locked himself in the store’s personnel office and called 911.”
Near the end of that robbery, Sanders and Jones made off with four iPhones stolen from people at the Walgreens and drove away in a white Honda Civic, a car that law enforcement officers later discovered had been rented through a car-sharing company.
Just five days later, investigators tracked down and arrested Sanders, Jones and Mouton.
They used phone records and GPS data to find them and discovered evidence linking them to the crimes, according to federal prosecutors, including guns and clothing consistent with those used and worn by the suspects in the Walgreens robbery.
The charges Mouton and Evans were convicted of include one count of conspiracy to disrupt commerce by theft (Hobbs Act), two counts of Hobbs Act robbery and two counts of brandishing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence .
Meanwhile, Sanders and Jones pleaded guilty last month to one count of conspiracy to commit Hobbs Act robbery, one count of Hobbs Act robbery and one count of brandishing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence. Although they are expected to be sentenced on March 31, 2025, they have agreed to 25-year prison sentences through plea agreements reached with federal prosecutors.
Their charges would have carried a mandatory minimum sentence of seven years in federal prison and a maximum possible sentence of life in prison.
Prosecutors said the string of robberies also involved three other suspects, including a 24-year-old man believed to be on the run: DeAngel Daryl Alvarez, also known as “Macc,” of the Athens neighborhood of South Los Angeles.
Adrian Timothy Bedran, a 24-year-old Rosemead resident, pleaded guilty to Hobbs Act robbery on September 9, and he remains free on $50,000 bail until his sentencing scheduled for January 13 next year. The final defendant in the case – 20-year-old Kevin Antwon Gadley, aka “One Shot,” of San Fernando – is currently in state custody on unrelated charges.
