FLORIDA — The final member of a shopper-targeting crew has pleaded guilty for his involvement in a series of armed robberies targeting retail shoppers in Miami.
On Jan. 24, Wayne Tarpley, 30, of Miami, Florida, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit Hobbs Act robbery and brandishing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence.
Tarpley’s co-defendants, Tyreke Lafane Jackson, 23, and Da’Vontae Bobby McCrae, 23, both of Miami, previously pleaded guilty to the same charges.
According to the agreed-upon factual proffers, on Aug. 19, 2022, McCrae and Tarpley discussed going “Downtown [to]lurk the jewelers [and]see who walk in with a big bag obvious money … and follow [them]or if it’s sweet get em where they stand.”
Later that day, Jackson crashed a car into a vehicle leaving the Design District. McCrae and Tarpley got out of the car and robbed the victims, at gunpoint, of a watch they had just purchased.
Tarpley and McCrae also admitted their involvement in a Sept. 13, 2022, robbery where they chased, tackled, pistol-whipped, and robbed a victim who was walking to an event.
Tarpley is scheduled to be sentenced on Apr. 23. Jackson and McCrae are scheduled to be sentenced on March 25 and Feb. 23, respectively, before U.S. District Judge Kathleen M. Williams. The defendants face up to life in prison.
U.S. Attorney Markenzy Lapointe for the Southern District of Florida, Chief of Police Manuel A. Morales of the Miami Police Department (MPD), and Special Agent in Charge Christopher A. Robinson of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), Miami Field Division, announced the guilty pleas.
MPD and ATF Miami Field Division investigated the case with assistance from the Miami-Dade Police Department.
Lapointe thanked the State Attorney’s Office for their assistance. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Arielle Klepach and Hayden P. O’Byrne are prosecuting the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney G. Raemy Charest-Turken is handling asset forfeiture.
Anyone with information related to possible gun crimes is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS.
