Getaway Driver For Smash-And-Grab Gun Robbery Gets 80 Months

DENVER, CO – The getaway driver in a 2017 burglary of a Thornton gun store was sentenced to prison in U.S. District Court the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

Twenty-three-year-old Kendall Crockett, aka “Grizzle,” a reputed Bloods street gang member, was sentenced to 80 months in federal prison, followed by 3 years of supervised release by District Court Judge Philip A. Brimmer.

Crockett, along with Darnell Hudgens, 23, (aka "Weezle") and 21-year-old Giavanni Edward Miles (aka "No Lack") were indicted by a grand jury for the Aug. 21, 2017 smash-and-grab robbery of 56 firearms from Cabela’s gun store, 14050 Lincoln Street. The group smashed a stolen Jeep through the store's front door around 2 a.m. according to police reports.

As part of the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms's "Project Safe Neighborhoods" operation, ATF prosecutors charged people with the thefts of more than 400 firearms in the past year. Hudgens and Miles were also charged with an earlier similar burglary at the Cabela’s in Lone Tree.

The three were first indicted by a federal grand jury in Denver on September 25, 2017. Miles pled guilty on January 1, 2018, and was sentenced on April 12, 2018. Hudgens pled guilty on January 1, 2018, and was sentenced on April 20, 2018. Crockett pled guilty February 21, 2018. All three defendants have since appealed, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

Hudgens was sentenced to serve 57 months in prison, followed by 3 years of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay $107,558.61 in restitution. Miles will serve serve 70 months in prison, followed by 3 years supervised release, and was ordered to pay $107,558.61 in restitution, joint and several with defendant Hudgens.

In the Thornton burglary, surveillance video showed that three suspects ran into the store, grabbed the firearms, and shoved them into backpacks worn on their chests. They then ran toward the emergency exit, which was obstructed. They then ran through the front door and continued east through a field, the U.S. Attorney's office said.

Crockett was waiting as the lookout and getaway driver in a second car, documents said, and the trio fled the scene in that car. After the burglary, the three "distributed the stolen firearms to fellow Bloods gang members, including gang members who the defendants knew were prohibited from possessing firearms," the U.S. Attorney's office said.

“These are not property crimes. These are life and death crimes. Stolen guns go straight into the hands of criminals, not hunters and target shooters,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Bob Troyer when the three were first charged in October, 2017. “The people who bring this violence into our communities will be introduced to federal justice, up close and personal, for a long time.”

“These individuals deserve to be behind bars,” said Debbie Livingston, ATF Denver special agent in charge in a statement Wednesday. “Thefts of this kind will not be tolerated in Denver. I am proud of the work done by our special agents and partners that led to their arrest.”

Image via Shutterstock

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