Nine members of an Oakland street crew known as Ghost Town have been hit with a combined 709 months in federal prison, nearly 60 years, after admitting they conspired to carry out a string of armed robberies across the Bay Area in 2022. U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín handed down individual terms ranging from about four years to nearly a decade, and the court also ordered restitution to victims.
Group Gets Heavy Federal Sentences
The defendants, Demarco Barnett, Jakari Jenkins, Danny Garcia, Garland Rabon, Aramiya Burrell, Lester Garnett, Darrin Hutchinson, Ricky Joseph, and Keanna Smith-Stewart, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit robbery affecting interstate commerce. Eight of them also admitted to one or more separate robbery counts tied to specific takeovers. Sentences ran from 50 months to 114 months and, taken together, totaled 709 months. The court ordered $150,338 in restitution, as reported by the San Francisco Chronicle.
Three Takeovers Targeted Small Businesses
Court filings and charging documents lay out a carefully planned robbery spree. Prosecutors say the March 18, 2022, robbery of a coin-and-stamp store on the 10th floor of a South of Market office building in San Francisco netted more than $300,000 after assailants zip-tied victims and struck them. On November 12, 2022, members posed as customers before robbing a San Pablo jewelry store, and on December 24, 2022, the crew forced an employee back into an Oakland marijuana business at gunpoint, hit him in the head and stole his debit card and trimmings, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California.
Evidence Included Video And Flaunted Stolen Goods
To build the case, prosecutors leaned on surveillance footage, seized video, and social media clips that showed defendants wearing and sharing stolen jewelry. Some members were sentenced in separate hearings late last year. Garland Rabon, whom prosecutors described as a getaway driver, received six years and three months in December and was allowed to delay reporting to prison until May 2026, Bay Area News Group reported.
Federal Charges Explained
The defendants were prosecuted under the Hobbs Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1951, for conspiracy to rob businesses affecting interstate commerce. Keanna Smith-Stewart also pleaded guilty to access-device fraud for using a stolen debit card. Those federal counts carry separate penalties that can include prison time, fines, forfeiture and supervised release, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
How This Case Unfolded Locally
Federal prosecutors first unsealed a superseding indictment in April 2024 that tied several of the suspects to Ghost Town, a development covered when four defendants were charged in May 2024 as an organized gang conspiracy. The prosecutions are part of an ongoing federal push to go after violent crews that have targeted small businesses across the region.
Restitution And What’s Next
The court ordered $150,338 in restitution to victims, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, and with the federal sentences now finalized, the defendants are set to serve lengthy stints in federal custody followed by supervised release. Prosecutors said the case was brought by the U.S. Attorney’s Violent Crime Strike Force after an investigation by the FBI and the Oakland Police Department.
