Lindenwold, New Jersey Man Sentenced to Prison for Robbery of Gas Station Owner

CAMDEN, NJ—A Lindenwold, N.J., man was sentenced today to 46 months in prison for his role in the robbery of a gas station owner outside a TD Bank in Deptford, N.J., U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.

Jamaine Levi, 23, previously pleaded guilty to an information charging him with one count of aiding and abetting a Hobbs Act robbery. Levi entered his guilty plea before U.S. District Judge Joseph H. Rodriguez. Judge Rodriguez also imposed the sentence today in Camden federal court.

According to documents filed in this and related cases and statements made in court: Prior to the robbery on June 11, 2010, Donnell Cheek told Levi about a tip he had received from TD Bank teller Stephanie Jordan regarding a bank customer that made large cash deposits. The customer owned several gas stations.

Levi admitted that on the day of the robbery, he and co-conspirators Donnell and Dashawn Cheek waited near the gas station owner’s house and then followed him to several gas stations and to the TD Bank in Deptford.

At the bank, the Cheek brothers got out of the car, approached the gas station owner, and took his blue Sunoco money bag containing approximately $65,440 in proceeds of his gas stations’ sales. After stealing the money, the Cheeks ran back to where Levi was waiting in the car. They later split the cash.

In addition to the prison term, Judge Rodriguez sentenced Levi to three years of supervised release and ordered him to pay $72,684 in restitution.

Jordan and the Cheek brothers have all pleaded guilty to related offenses. Dashawn Cheek was sentenced to 50 months in prison on June 22, 2011; Jordan and Donnell Cheek await sentencing.

U.S. Attorney Fishman credited special agents of the FBI’s South Jersey Resident Agency, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge George C. Venizelos in Philadelphia; investigators with the Camden County and Gloucester County Prosecutors’ Offices, under the direction of Prosecutors Warren W. Faulk and Sean F. Dalton, respectively; and officers with the Voorhees and Deptford Township Police Departments for the investigation leading to today’s sentence.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason M. Richardson of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Criminal Division in Camden.

Defense counsel: Troy A. Archie Esq., Camden