Contact Person: Lance Crick (864) 282-2105
Charleston, South Carolina --- United States Attorney Beth Drake announced today that Aquabeus Demond Moore, 37, of Atlanta, Georgia, was convicted following a four-day jury trial in United States District Court in Charleston. The Honorable Richard M. Gergel presided over the case.
Witness testimony and the evidence presented by the government during the trial established that Moore and others travelled from Atlanta to rob Sylvan Jewelers in Columbia, South Carolina, on Feb. 19, 2015, and MP Demetre Jewelers in Charleston, South Carolina, on March 4, 2015. The jury convicted Moore of five separate counts, one count of Conspiracy to Commit Robbery Affecting Interstate Commerce, two counts of Robbery Affecting Interstate Commerce, and two counts of Brandishing a Firearm During a Violent Crime.
The conspiracy and robbery counts each carry up to twenty years imprisonment under 18 U.S.C. § 1951(a) and the gun charges carry a mandatory consecutive seven years plus twenty-five years imprisonment under 18 U.S.C. § 924(c).
A federal jury previously convicted Charles Johnson, one of Moore’s co-conspirators, of the same charges. The Honorable Richard M. Gergel sentenced Johnson to thirty-two years and one day on April 10 of this year.
The conviction is the result of an investigation conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigations, City of Charleston Police Department and Columbia Police Department. Assistant United States Attorneys Nathan Williams and Emily Limehouse of the Charleston office prosecuted the case. ##
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
