Prosecutors cite violent rap sheets in bid to detain suspects in Tuan Le case
More details are emerging on the lengthy rap sheets of those accused of robberies that led to the murder of Oakland police officer Tuan Le in the small hours of December 29 2023.
Following the unsealing last week of an indictment against seven men federal prosecutors say were involved in the raid on a cannabis farm, and two women alleged to have helped accused triggerman Mark Sanders avoid capture, Government attorneys presented further details in an effort to deny bail to six of the defendants.
Sanders himself, in state custody in Alameda County facing charges including first-degree murder with special circumstances, is not yet indicted federally and is referred to as an “unnamed co-conspirator” in prosecutors’ detention motion.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office provided the court with stills from security camera footage taken on the night of the robbery. This, they say, shows Allen Brown, Sebron Russell, and “co-conspirator” Mark Sanders, wearing masks and bearing crowbars, on a landing outside a marijuana grow facility.
Marquise Cooper, the memo says, stood watch some distance away.
“Once the perpetrators successfully gained entry,” wrote assistant U.S. attorney Alethea Sargent, “Brown used a firearm to clear the rooms while the unnamed co-conspirator lit the way.”
Over three hours men are seen returning multiple times to steal hundreds of marijuana plants. Prosecutors say the job was so big they called reinforcements in the form of Jowaun Jones, Salvador Munguia, and Shawn McGee. They arrived in various vehicles and the theft continued.
Just after 4:30am, OPD officer Tuan Le and his partner, driving an unmarked truck, were dispatched to the scene to investigate an in-progress burglary. The officers’ arrival prompted the burglary crew to decamp from the building and flee to their cars. Camera footage captured a man said by prosecutors to be the unnamed co-conspirator, Sanders, pointing a firearm directly at Le’s vehicle.
Le and his partner set out to chase one of the vehicles used to escape the scene, a Chevrolet Malibu.
“As the vehicles traveled along Embarcadero, Brown’s black Infiniti pulled behind Officer Le’s vehicle,” wrote Sargent.
“As the suspect vehicles approached the southbound Interstate 880 on-ramp, the unnamed co-conspirator, sitting in the passenger set of Brown’s vehicle, fired more than 20 shots at the back of the officers vehicle, striking Officer Tuan Le in the head and killing him.”
All the men face a charge of conspiracy to distribute marijuana, and attempted possession with intent to distribute marijuana. Brown, Russell and Cooper additionally face a charge of actual possession with intent to distribute marijuana. Brown is also accused of brandishing a firearm in connection with drug trafficking.
Shortly after the murder, prosecutors say, the unnamed co-conspirator, Sanders, “conscripted” his mother and girlfriend to secure a one-way plane ticket for him to Atlanta, GA.
Felicia Sanders and Jasmine Kumar were indicted on a charge of being an accessory after the fact.
In a memorandum filed with the court in an effort to ensure the pretrial detention of Brown, Russell, Booth, Jones, McGee and Munguia, authorities detailed their lengthy rap sheets,
Three in particular – Booth, McGee and Jones – are directly accused of continued involvement in grave criminality in the aftermath of what they must have known was the death of a police officer.
Less than three months later, prosecutors say, Janeiro Booth was found with a loaded Glock handgun and auto burglary tools after he had rammed a police car and drove on a sidewalk in a bid to escape.
He was arrested again earlier this month after leading police on a 100mph+ chase while wearing a balaclava mask. He was captured after he crashed his car and attempted to flee on foot.
On August 31 2024, prosecutors say Shawn McGee also led Oakland police on a high speed auto chase during which he tossed an AR-15 machine gun loaded with 63 rounds out of the car window. Government attorneys point out that he was on probation for a 2022 robbery, false imprisonment and grand theft conviction at the time of that incident. Subsequently, police believe, he was part of an armed burglary crew who raided the premises of a restaurant supplier on October 5 2024.
McGee has previously been convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm and drug dealing.
Jowaun Jones is tied by phone records, prosecutors say, to multiple burglaries in Union City in September 2025. The vehicle he was driving was “cold-plated” – fitted with a stolen license plate – which is the same tactic he is accused of employing in the vehicle he was in on the night of the murder.
Allen Brown was convicted in 2016 or possessing a loaded firearm in public and has juvenile arrests for burglaries, robberies and theft.
Sebron Russell was convicted for commercial burglary in 2015 and 2022, for firearms possession in 2019, and for fleeing police in 2016. He has been arrested for robberies, burglaries and drug sales.
Salvador Munguia has previously been arrested for robbery and has multiple arrests for driving under the influence. He was arrested as a juvenile for burglary.
Today Brown and Russell pleaded not guilty to four charges and were remanded in custody by U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas Hixson until their next hearing date on February 27 2026.
Hixson rejected bail bids by Jones and McGee, who were also remanded in custody until February 27 2026. Munguia was ordered released on a $25,000 bond. Booth will ask U.S. Magistrate Judge Alex Tse for bail on December 22.
This story has been updated.
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