Man gets 7 years for smash-and-grab at Beverly Hills jewelry store robbery worth $2.6 million
A Long Beach man was sentenced to seven years in federal prison on Monday for his part in a brazen 2022 Beverly Hills jewelry store robbery, where more than $2.6 million in merchandise was stolen, with proceeds from the heist posted to Instagram.
Ladell Tharpe, 39, was sentenced by a federal judge for the March 2022 crime and has been in federal custody since March 2023, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California. Tharpe pleaded guilty in September 2024 to one count of interference with commerce by robbery (Hobbs Act).
Tharpe and his accomplices, Deshon Bell, 22, and Jimmy Lee Vernon III, 33, both from Long Beach, as well as an unnamed minor, drove three vehicles to the jewelry store and, in broad daylight, used sledgehammers and crowbars to break the glass encasing the merchandise while employees and customers were in the shop.
Several people witnessed the robbery and, with their cell phone cameras, captured the robbers breaking the store's glass before running off with the stolen jewelry.
Cindy Delaguerra, one of the store's employees, said she called over the owner of the jewelry shop when she heard the sound of glass breaking, thinking it was the sound of gunshots.
"I couldn't believe it. I was sitting there and I just heard, like, a pop," Delaguerra said. "I thought it was a gun, and I started calling for Peter. And I started pressing the alarm, trying to call 911 and I look up and I just see them with sledgehammers — grabbing everything."
Prosecutors said the thieves took at least 19 bracelets, seven pairs of earrings, four necklaces, a pair of obelisks, eight rings, and 20 watches, with an approximate total value of $2,674,600. The crew then returned to the car in which Bell was waiting and fled the scene.
One of the vehicles driven to the jewelry store by the robbery crew had been reported stolen four days before and was left in front of the store.
Two days after the heist, Tharpe posted large amounts of cash on his Instagram with the text "Robbery Gang."
Bell and Vernon each pleaded guilty to one count of Hobbs Act robbery. In February 2024, Bell was sentenced to one year and one day in federal prison and ordered to pay $2,674,000 in restitution.
Vernon, who dropped his cell phone during the robbery and was recovered by investigators, was sentenced last month to 80 months in prison and was also ordered to repay $2,674,000 in restitution.
Tharpe was also ordered to pay $2,674,600 in restitution.
