3 men charged with $2.6M Beverly Hills jewelry store robbery

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Three men were charged Wednesday with stealing more than $2.6 million in a brazen smash-and-grab robbery at a Beverly Hills jewelry store, federal prosecutors said.

Jimmy Lee Vernon III, 31, Ladell Tharpe, 37, and Deshon Bell, 20, all of Long Beach, were each indicted on one count each of conspiracy and interference with commerce by robbery, which carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for each count, the U.S. attorney’s office said in a statement.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether the three had attorneys to speak for them.

The three are accused of driving three cars, one of them reportedly stolen, to the Beverly Hills store on March 23, where Vernon and others allegedly smashed the exterior store cases with axes, sledgehammers and crowbars and ran off with dozens of bracelets, watches, necklaces and other items.

Vernon’s cellphone fell out of his sweatpants pocket during the robbery and law enforcement recovered it, authorities said.

According to the indictment, two days after the robbery Tharpe posted to his Instagram account photographs that included “large stacks of money and a message praising his ‘robbery gang.’”

All three men were arrested last month.

Bell, the alleged getaway driver, was released on $15,000 bond.

A juvenile who wasn’t charged in the federal indictment also was arrested in connection with the robbery and is charged with commercial burglary, the U.S. attorney’s office said.