2 Kmart Robbers Get Lengthy Prison Terms

Two members of a ring that staged takeover robberies at six Kmart stores in the Los Angeles area were sentenced to virtual life prison terms Tuesday because guns were brandished during the crimes.

Anthony Gaines, 34, of Lawndale, portrayed by prosecutors as the mastermind behind the robberies, was ordered by U.S. District Judge Lourdes Baird to spend 82 years and 5 months behind bars.

Yvette Crystal Wade, 34, of Los Angeles, a onetime Kmart assistant manager, was sentenced to 73 years and 1 month in prison for taking part in the robberies.

Federal convicts are not entitled to parole and must serve at least 85% of their sentences.

The judge indicated from the bench that she had no choice but to hand down the stiff terms because of a federal law aimed at criminals who use weapons.

At the time the robberies were committed in 1997 and 1998, the law mandated a five-year prison sentence for using a gun in a crime of violence, and 20-year terms for any similar offenses that followed. All terms must be served consecutively.

This year, Congress boosted the penalty for second offenses to 25 years, said Assistant U.S. Atty. Sally L. Meloch, who prosecuted the Kmart case.

Before being sentenced, Gaines told the judge that he was wrongly accused of being the ringleader.

“I don’t feel it’s right me getting all this time while the government made deals with some of the others,” Gaines said.

Two confederates arrested in the case agreed to cooperate with authorities and were prosecuted in state court, where they received lesser sentences, said Gaines’ lawyer, Michael Meza.

According to prosecutors, Gaines did not take part in the store takeovers, but he oversaw the planning, recruited and instructed the participants and gave them weapons to use.

Wade and another Kmart employee provided information about internal security. The bandits also obtained Kmart employee vests so they could move around inside the stores without attracting attention.

At each store, the intruders made their way to back-office cash rooms and forced employees to the floor at gunpoint. At no time were any employees shot at or beaten, Meza said.

Wade insisted that she was innocent. But Baird said the trial evidence showed that Wade served as a lookout and driver for the robbers, pretended to be a robbery victim once, and ultimately shared the loot.

More than $180,000 was stolen in the robberies at Kmart stores in Los Angeles, Torrance and Harbor City.

Asked if she had anything to say before being sentenced, Wade, who is the mother of three children, told the judge: “I do have children and would like to see them someday.”

Baird agreed to recommend to the Bureau of Prisons that Wade and Gaines be incarcerated in California so they could be closer to their families.

Wade’s sister, Tanya Washington, said in a hallway interview afterward that the lengthy prison sentence was unfair. She said that Wade was “naive” and “just happened to pick the wrong friends.”

Also indicted in the case were Wade’s boyfriend, Dereck Ricardo Hoskins, 25, of Gardena, another Kmart employee, and Anthony Dean Blackstone, 28, of Los Angeles, who are awaiting sentencing; Alonzo Patrick, 23, of Los Angeles and Alfonso Sam Lezine, 26, of Los Angeles, who have not yet been tried; and Kareem Longsworth, 20, of Los Angeles, who was sentenced to 77 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to robbery conspiracy.