Two Indicted on Federal Charges Stemming from Twelve Robberies in Six Counties

RALEIGH – United States Attorney Robert J. Higdon, Jr. announces that a federal grand jury sitting in Greenville indicted two individuals on numerous robbery and firearm offenses, stemming from a string of armed robberies of local businesses across six counties in July of 2019. 

JACOB EVANS, 23, of Gates, and JEQUAYVES BRITT, 19, of Sharpsburg, were each indicted on twelve counts of interference of interstate commerce by robbery and twelve counts of possession of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence.  The indictment alleges that EVANS and BRITT robbed or attempted to rob twelve separate businesses in Nash, Wilson, Halifax, Edgecombe, Pitt, and Greene counties in July of 2019.  In each instance, EVANS and BRITT are alleged to have possessed a firearm in furtherance of the robbery.  If convicted, EVANS and BRITT face penalties of up to life imprisonment.

These cases are part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and make our neighborhoods safer for everyone.   Since 2017, the United States Department of Justice has reinvigorated the PSN program and has targeted violent criminals, directing all U.S. Attorney’s Offices to work in partnership with federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement and the local community to develop effective, locally-based strategies to reduce violent crime.

That effort has been implemented through the Take Back North Carolina Initiative of The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina.  This initiative emphasizes the regional assignment of federal prosecutors to work with law enforcement and District Attorney’s Offices on a sustained basis in those communities to reduce the violent crime rate, drug trafficking, and crimes against law enforcement.  For more information about this initiative click here:  https://www.justice.gov/usao-ednc/tbnc.

The charges and allegations contained in the Indictment are merely accusations.  The defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law. 

Rocky Mount Police Department, Wilson Police Department, Roanoke Rapids Police Department, Greenville Police Department, Sharpsburg Police Department, Pine Tops Police Department, Wilson County Sheriff’s Office, Greene County Sheriff’s Office, North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives conducted the investigations in this matter.   Assistant United States Attorney J.D. Koesters is prosecuting the case for the government.