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Press Release
NEWARK, N.J. – A Newark man was sentenced today to 50 months in prison for committing two armed robberies of commercial establishments in Essex County, New Jersey, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.
Antwon Yarbrough, 28, previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge William H. Walls to an information charging him with one count of conspiring to commit Hobbs Act robberies. Judge Walls also imposed the sentence today in Newark federal court.
According documents filed in this case and statements made in court:
Between April 2013 and May 2013, Yarbrough conspired with others to rob a Krauszers store in West Orange on April 24, 2013, and a Subway restaurant in Verona on May 20, 2013. Yarbrough and his conspirators robbed these establishments at gunpoint. In each robbery, they used plastic zip ties to restrain their victims. The conspirators then stole cash, cigarettes and other items.
In the Krauszers robbery on April 24, 2013, Yarbrough and another robber entered the store wearing dark hoodies, face masks, and gloves. Yarbrough secured the door from the inside using a zip tie, while the other robber pointed a firearm at an employee and forced the employee to the floor. The robber restrained the employee with zip ties and struck the employee in the head with the gun. Yarbrough restrained the hands and feet of two other victims, one of whom he struck in the head with his forearm. Yarbrough and another robber then emptied the cash register of several hundred dollars, stole several cartons of cigarettes, and fled.
In the Subway robbery on May 20, 2013, Yarbrough and two other robbers again entered the restaurant wearing dark hoodies, face masks, and gloves. Both robbers accompanying Yarbrough brandished firearms. After entering the restaurant, the robbers restrained an employee by tying the employee’s hands and feet with zip ties. The robbers then emptied the cash register of several hundred dollars and fled.
Two others involved with these and other robberies – Bobby Dawson, 31, and Jamar Darby, 27, both of Newark – were each sentenced to serve 225 months in prison in July and October 2014, respectively.
In addition to the prison term, Judge Walls sentenced Yarbrough to serve three years of supervised release.
U.S. Attorney Fishman credited special agents of the FBI, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Aaron T. Ford in Newark, with the investigation. He also thanked the Belleville, Bloomfield, Kearny, Linden, Maplewood, Newark, Paramus, Verona and West Orange police departments, along with the New Jersey State Police and the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office, for their work on this case.
The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jamari Buxton and Rahul Agarwal of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Criminal Division in Newark.
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Defense counsel: Stacy Biancamano Esq., West Orange