One of the duo accused of an armed robbery spree in San Francisco would still have been in custody for firearms offenses had a federal judge not ignored the pleas of prosecutors and probation officials who argued for a substantially longer sentence than was handed down.
Lloyd Gage and Jacquez Tucker appeared in Department 10 of San Francisco Superior Court this morning before Judge Victor Hwang. Gage faces 35 felony counts of robbery, assault, firearms and kidnapping. Tucker faces additional counts of assault with a firearm.
Prosecutors say employees were pistol-whipped during gunpoint robberies of City Smoke (2196 Mission) on September 26 and Norm’s Market (2201 Bryant) on October 4. Gauge and Tucker also robbed Happy Donuts (3801 24th) at gunpoint on October 2.
Gage was sentenced in September 2017 to 60 months’ imprisonment after a police search of the car he was driving turned up two loaded firearms, ski masks, $13,586 in cash and more than one kilogram of marijuana. He was on supervised release at the time of his arrest.
In imposing the sentence U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer largely agreed with defense attorneys who argued in favor of a 54 month sentence. He rejected the 100 month recommendation of the Government and the 92 month recommendation of probation officials – either of which would have meant that Gage would still be in Bureau of Prisons custody today.
“Mr Gage has amply demonstrated that he needs increased deterrence and intense supervision to protect the public from a repetition of his dangerous offenses,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Katherine Lloyd-Lovett told the court in 2017.
“A sentence within the heartland of the Guidelines is therefore appropriate, along with the strongest possible terms of supervised release.”
In a sentencing memorandum, Gage’s attorney explained that “[w]hile Mr Gauge fully admits that he royally ‘messed up’ given his actions in this case while on supervised release, he is not the type of violent felon deserving of an 8.33 year sentence.”
“There are signs that Mr Gage is the type of defendant who still can turn his situation around.”
Gage has a lengthy rap sheet, with his first brushes with the law coming when he was 14 year old. As an adult he was convicted in 2011 for sale of cocaine and being part of a street gang, 2012 for being a felon in possession of a loaded .40 caliber Glock pistol while drug dealing, and in 2017 for being a felon in possession of a firearm again in deeply suspicious circumstances.
Tucker was convicted in 2011 for being a felon in possession of a firearm and has been back before federal courts regularly for violating the terms of his supervised release – breaches which, prosecutors say, included associating with members of the Westmobb street gang.
Due to the unavailability of Tucker’s assigned public defender today, Judge Hwang delayed instruction and arraignment until Thursday October 12 at 9:00am.
Heather Trevisan appeared for the People, Eric Safire for Gage and Jessie Shay for Tucker. Trevisan has filed a motion to detain which will be heard in due course. In the meantime, the judge ordered both defendants held without bail.
The arrest of Gage and Tucker was first reported by The Marina Times.
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