A third defendant pleaded guilty in July for his role in the June 15 robbery, which took place after a celebrity campaign fundraiser for President Joe Biden hosted by Jimmy Kimmel in Los Angeles that afternoon.
Secret Service agents were staying in a residential area known as Tustin Field 1 about 35 miles southeast of Los Angeles. Authorities say the agent was walking from his parked car at about 9:30 p.m. when Jamonte Fitzgerald Johnson, 32, of Fontana exited a gray SUV and approached him.
Prosecutors said Johnson pointed a gun at the agent and grabbed his laptop bag, then returned to the SUV. The agent fired several shots into the vehicle as the men fled.
Johnson was found guilty of one felony count of second-degree robbery, one felony count of possession of a firearm by a felon, and two felony enhancements of personal use of a firearm.
He was on parole at the time, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and has two prior convictions.
“The state Legislature and the governor’s soft-on-crime policies are continuing to encourage violent career criminals to come to Orange County from other counties for the sole purpose of victimizing Orange County residents,” District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in a statement Monday. “Today’s convictions are yet another example of how crime doesn’t pay in Orange County and that justice will be swift and it will be decisive.”
Monday’s conviction is Johnson’s third strike, meaning he faces a maximum sentence of 35 years to life in state prison. He is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 22.
California’s three-strikes law significantly increases the prison sentences of people convicted of violent or serious felonies for a third time. It also offers convicts limited sentencing options.
Violent and serious felonies include murder, robbery of a residence in which a deadly weapon is used, rape, and other sex offenses. Other offences include assault with the intent to commit a robbery or rape, and burglary of a home.
The second defendant found guilty Monday was E’shon Dwayne Dodson, 21, of Compton. Dodson was arrested on July 17 in the Watts area of Los Angeles.
Jurors found him guilty of one felony count of second-degree robbery and one felony enhancement of being armed with a gun during the commission of a felony.
Dodson is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 10, 2025, and faces a maximum sentence of six years in state prison, according to the district attorney’s office.
The third defendant, Bertran Claude Bell, 38, of Los Angeles pleaded guilty in July to one felony count of second-degree robbery and was sentenced to six years in state prison.
Authorities had found Bell in a Los Angeles hospital being treated for a gunshot wound, according to the district attorney’s office.
While returning to the SUV after the robbery, authorities say Johnson dropped the gun he was holding. The gun was recovered at the scene by Tustin police detectives. The agent’s cell phone, radio, and other belongings were later recovered in the area after they were discarded by the suspects during their escape.
Johnson was arrested on July 11 in the city of Riverside, about 40 miles northeast of the crime scene, after detectives say they matched DNA from the gun and the agent’s stolen belongings to him.
