Federal officials announced Friday that five Bay Area residents arrested in a high-speed chase from Sacramento to Martinez were also wanted for a robbery at a Denver jewelry store earlier in the week.
According to Bay Area News Group and The Denver Post, California Highway Patrol has identified the suspects in this heist as Anthony Domino, 21, and Anthony Tyree, 23, both of San Francisco; Sharde Suwannabart, 24, and Sean McCullough, 23, both of Oakland and Summer Sawyer, 30, of San Mateo. If convicted of robbery affecting commerce, each defendant faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
The United States Attorney’s Office said the crime spree began with a smash-and-grab robbery at the Williams Jewelry store in Denver on Feb. 24. Federal authorities said three men in black hoodies, black masks, and armed with guns robbed the jewelry store at gunpoint. Witnesses in Denver reported seeing a maroon Chevy Blazer fleeing the area after the robbery.
When police contacted the registered owner of the Chevy Blazer, the owner said he sold the vehicle the day before to two men and two women after placing an ad on Craigslist. The original owner of that Chevy Blazer revealed that the people who bought the car from him were driving a Cadillac SUV with California license plates. Law enforcement tracked down that Cadillac SUV and found it was a rental from San Francisco Airport’s Enterprise Rent-A-Car.
Using data from OnStar GPS, FBI agents tracked down the Cadillac SUV on Interstate 80 in Roseville, California, 17 hours after the jewelry heist in Denver.
FBI Agents then contacted state and local officials to help catch the jewelry robbers.
“The raw violence used in the take-over robbery of a Denver jewelry store left no doubt of the urgent need to identify, locate and arrest the perpetrators,” U.S. Attorney John Walsh said.
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CHP worked with the FBI to track down the Cadillac SUV, eventually leading to a 60-mile vehicle pursuit on Interstate 80. The SUV crashed into a fence during the chase on Wednesday morning and four of the people in the car tried to flee the scene. Twenty-four hours after the robbery in Denver, all five of the people in the SUV were ultimately taken into custody by the CHP and charged with federal robbery crimes.
Authorities found a handgun and Rolex watches in the Cadillac SUV once the high-speed chase was over; one of the watches had a serial number matching a Rolex watch stolen from the Denver jewelry store on Tuesday.
