Long Beach man gets more than 28 years in federal prison for role in Antelope Valley area robberies
During one of the robberies, Kaleb Williams, 38, and his co-conspirators dragged a Party City employee around the store by her shirt before shooting a door open and escaping with $10,000.
A Long Beach man has been sentenced to 28 years and three months in federal prison for his role in a string of robberies in the Antelope Valley area, officials said Friday.
According to the Department of Justice, 38-year-old Kaleb Williams served as the ringleader in a crew that robbed multiple stores in Lancaster and Palmdale between 2019 and 2020.
“Violent gun crime corrodes our community’s feeling of safety,” said United States Attorney Martin Estrada. “Today’s sentence shows criminals that when you break the law and use a gun to do it, the penalties will be severe.”
In July 2019, Williams and several other accomplices, armed with handguns, walked into a Lancaster jewelry and stole 348 items, along with a firearm, according to authorities.
During another robbery a few months later, Williams and his crew robbed a Party City store in Palmdale, authorities said. There, they dragged the employee by her shirt and dragged her around the store before shooting a door open and escaping with roughly $10,000, authorities said.
Williams and his crew were eventually identified by the FBI and the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department as suspects in the robberies. Authorities did not say when Williams and his accomplices were taken into custody, but a jury in September 2023 found the 38-year-old Long Beach man guilty of two counts of conspiracy to interfere with commerce by robbery, three counts of interference with commerce by robbery, and two counts of using a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, according to the DOJ.
Clay Pearson, 44, of Long Beach, who authorities say was a co-conspirator in the robberies, was also found guilty at the same trial of one count of conspiracy to interfere with commerce by robbery, one count of interference with commerce by robbery, and one count of using a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence.
A federal judge this week handed down the sentence to Williams and ordered him to pay more than $500,00 in restitution, according to the DOJ. Pearson, according to authorities, will be sentenced on Aug. 30.
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