South Bay Jewelry Robbery Spree Suspect Charged With Hate Crimes: DA

SANTA CLARA COUNTY, CA — A Peninsula man has been charged with hate crimes robbery in connection with a crime spree in which he targeted women of South Asian descent, the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office said in a news release.

Lathan Johnson, 37 of East Palo Alto, was arrested by the Santa Clara Police Department and the U.S. Marshal’s Office after the Milpitas Police Department first identified him as the suspect, the DA’s Office said.

Johnson is scheduled to be arraigned on the hate crime charges at 9 a.m. Tuesday in Department 24 of the Hall of Justice in San José, the DA’s Office said.

He faces prison time, if convicted.

Johnson is accused of targeting at least 14 South Asian women in robberies over a two-month period starting in June in which he tore off their necklaces before speeding away in a getaway car, the DA’s Office said.

Several victims were injured in the robberies, the DA’s Office said. The victims ranged in age from 50-73.

Santa Clara DA Jeff Rosen along with several South Asian community leaders plan to attend the hearing.

“I say to our South Asian community that anyone who targets and attacks you will be arrested and treated with the utmost severity under our law,” Rosen said in a statement.

“Santa Clara County’s precious diversity is our strength, our superpower – not a criminal opportunity.”

The spree began in June of this year.

Over the next weeks, South Asian women – almost always wearing a sari, bindi, or other types of ethnic attire, were targeted in San Jose, Milpitas, Sunnyvale, and Santa Clara.

In one case, the victim was walking with her husband down a Milpitas street when Johnson approached and asked for directions.

The defendant then walked up behind them and pushed the woman to the ground and punched her husband in the face and then pushed him to the ground.

He ripped a necklace valued at $1,000 off the woman’s neck and jumped into a car and sped away.

The woman suffered a broken wrist, and her husband was treated for a possible broken nose.

The estimated value of all the stolen necklaces is about $35,000.

Late last year, the Santa Clara DA’s Office charged a group of men with hate crimes and robbery for targeting Asian women during a purse-snatching spree. Those cases are pending.