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Press Release

Portsmouth Brothers Convicted Of Robberies

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of Virginia

NORFOLK, Va. - Laquan Draper, 21, and Angelo Draper, 20, both of Portsmouth, Va., were convicted today by a federal jury on charges stemming from a series of convenience store and fast food restaurant robberies over an eight week period in the summer of 2011.

            Neil H. McBride, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, made the announcement after the verdicts were accepted by Senior United States District Judge Robert G. Doumar.

            The Draper brothers were convicted of conspiracy to commit robbery, 12 counts of commercial robbery, and discharging a firearm during a robbery.  Also, Laquan Draper was convicted of the robbery of the ABC Store on Little Creek Road in Norfolk and possession of a firearm by a felon.  They were found not guilty of four related counts in the indictment.

They are facing a minimum mandatory sentence of ten (10) years and a maximum life sentence in prison when they are sentenced on May 6, 2013.

            According to court records and evidence at trial, the Drapers started an eight-week robbery spree in July, 2011, spanning Norfolk to Roanoke, Va.  The brothers, concealing their identities with shirts tied around their faces, entered 7-11 convenience stores with either firearms or replica firearms, jumped over the counter and took money from store employees.  The men also convicted of conspiring to rob employees of twenty establishments, including numerous 7-Eleven stores, two McDonald's, a Wendy's, an ABC Store, and a Fast Auto Loans location.  At one of the locations, the Got It Video in Norfolk, the Drapers and a co-conspirator shot out the locked front door, shattering the glass and entered the store to commit the robbery, holding customers and clerks at gun-point. 

            After a twenty-minute, multi-vehicle high speed police pursuit, the brothers were arrested in Chesapeake on August 25, 2011 after they crashed the stolen Saturn Vue they were driving into a police vehicle, injuring two Chesapeake detectives.  A .22 caliber hand-gun was found in the passenger floor board of the stolen vehicle when the men were removed. Additional evidence recovered from the car was linked forensically to several of the crime scenes.

            This case was investigated by the Chesapeake, Norfolk, Portsmouth and Virginia Beach Police Departments; the Appomattox County Sheriff’s Department; the Roanoke County Police and the Roanoke City Police.  Assistant United States Attorney Sherrie S. Capotosto and Special Assistant United States Attorney Amy E. Cross are prosecuting the case on behalf of the United States.

            A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia at http://www.justice.gov/usao/vae. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia at http://www.vaed.uscourts.gov or on https://pcl.uscourts.gov.
Updated March 18, 2015