Rite -Aid robbery suspects plead guilty

(Larue)

(Watts)

(Strickland)

With their jury trial fast approaching, scheduled to get underway this coming Monday, three out-of-county men threw in the towel Wednesday afternoon and admitted criminal responsibility for a February robbery of a pharmacy in Willits.

The oldest of the three, defendant Dejoa Rayshawn LaRue (top picture), age 23, of Oakland and Sacramento, was granted permission to withdraw his previously-entered not guilty plea and, in its place, he entered guilty pleas Wednesday afternoon to felonious robbery in the second degree and felony transportation of oxycodone and morphine for purposes of sale.

Defendant LaRue also admitted that he has previously been convicted of a Strike conviction in 2014, said Strike being a residential robbery conviction that was entered in the Sacramento County Superior Court.

LaRue's accomplices, co-defendants Jakell Malik Watts, age 21, of Carmichael (bottom left picture), and Eural Strickland IV, age 19, of Sacramento (bottom right picture), were also granted permission to withdraw their previously-entered not guilty plea, and, in its place, each entered a guilty plea to the same felonious robbery in the second degree.

Pursuant to the global disposition, defendant LaRue will received a state prison sentence of 152 months when he and the others return to court for sentencing on June 6th at 9 o'clock in the morning in Department A at the Ukiah courthouse.

Because robbery is deemed by statute to be a violent felony, good time/work time custody credits that a defendant convicted of any robbery may attempt to earn in jail and state prison is limited to no more than 15% of the total sentence imposed.

Co-defendants Watts and Strickland each entered what is known as an "open" guilty plea. An open plea means the judge, after considering the sentencing arguments of the attorneys, will decide all aspects of each co-defendant's final sentence. If granted supervised probation, each co-defendant can be ordered to serve up to one year in the county jail. If probation is denied, each of the co-defendants in this case can be legally sentenced to up to 60 months in state prison.

As background, Willits police officers responded to the Rite-Aid on South Main Street in Willits late in the afternoon of Feb. 16 when it was reported that three suspects came into the business wearing bandanas over their faces, jumped over the pharmacy counter and demanded narcotics from employees. The suspects then “took what they could before fleeing in a vehicle” southbound on Highway 101.

After the get-away car was spotted near Reeves Canyon, a Willits officer and a deputy from the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office attempted to stop the get-away near West Road in Redwood Valley. The driver responded to this attempt by accelerating away at speeds in excess of 100 miles per hour.  As the chase moved through and beyond Ukiah, the get-away car eventually wrecked on the Ukiah side of Burke Hill.

The suspects then fled the vehicle and attempted to escape into the countryside. After a brief foot chase by Sheriff deputies, all three were captured.

The investigation by law enforcement determined that the robbers had taken several thousand narcotic prescription pills that had an estimated street value of nearly $50,000. It was also determined that the get-away car was a stolen vehicle out of the Sacramento area.

The prosecutor who crafted Wednesday's global resolution and who will be arguing on June 6th for state prison for the co-defendants is Assistant District Attorney Dale P. Trigg.

The investigating law enforcement agencies that apprehended the defendants and gathered all the necessary evidence underlying Wednesday's convictions were the Willits Police Department, the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office, the California Highway Patrol, and the District Attorney's own Bureau of Investigations.

Mendocino County Superior Court Judge Keith Faulder approved the global disposition Wednesday afternoon. He will preside over the sentencing hearings for each defendant on June 6th.