Three men have been sentenced in an armed robbery in which they held a man and woman at gunpoint in Brandon Township last September.
Eddie Ruben Almodovar, 23, Rafael Angel Cordero, 19, and Darius Leon Jarman, 20, all of Pontiac, had their cases heard by Oakland County 6th Circuit Court Judge Denise Langford Morris. All three ultimately pleaded no contest, guilty as charged, to two counts of armed robbery, three counts possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony, and one count of receiving and concealing stolen property.
Almodovar and Cordero were sentenced Feb. 13, with each receiving a mandatory sentence of 2 years imprisonment on the felony firearms charges. Additionally, Cordero was sentenced to serve 17 to 40 years in prison on the armed robbery charges, and 2-15 years on the receiving and concealing of stolen property charge. Almodovar was sentenced to 9 to 40 years in prison on the armed robbery charges and 1 to 10 years on receiving and concealing stolen property.
Jarman was sentenced April 24 and will also serve a mandatory 2 years in prison on the felony firearms charges. He was sentenced to serve 9-40 years on the armed robbery charges and 1-10 years on the receiving and concealing charge.
According to police reports, around 10 a.m. Sept. 3, a 9-1-1 call was placed from a home in the 900 block of E. Glass Road near Sally Z Court, with the caller saying an armed robbery had just occurred there, with three suspects fleeing in a purple Impala.
The emergency caller, a 20-year-old male resident of the home, told police he received a phone call from Cordero, whom he knows, saying he wanted to stop by for a visit. As the resident spoke with Cordero on the phone, Cordero drove up in the Impala. The resident walked out the back door to meet with Cordero and could not see the car in the driveway from his location. They then walked into the house and the resident suspected something was amiss because Cordero was just making small talk and wouldn’t make eye contact as he looked around the house.
He then asked the resident to come outside and meet his friends, who then returned with Cordero, who walked past the resident into the house, telling him to come look at marijuana. Cordero sat down as Jarman allegedly pulled an automatic handgun from the waist of his pants and pointed it at the resident and instructed him to lie face down on the kitchen floor. Cordero then went to get the resident’s girlfriend from a bedroom where she was sleeping.
The resident’s girlfriend told police after the suspect identified as Cordero told her to get up and come out, he walked out and then walked back in and pointed a handgun at her, ordering her into the kitchen area where they then demanded she lay face down on the floor next to her boyfriend.
She told deputies she thought was going to die and was praying to God to save her. Both victims watched as the suspects went into bedrooms and placed valuables and guns into bags, yelling at each other to hurry. They left the house after being in it approximately 10-15 minutes total.
An OCSO Independence Township patrol unit spotted the responsible vehicle as it was pulling onto southbound I-75 from the M-15 ramp. A felony traffic stop was effected and involved about 10 patrol units, some of which blocked three southbound lanes of I-75, as other deputies with firearms raised from a distance, ordered the driver to throw the keys out the window and then each suspect was ordered to step out of the car with hands raised.
‘Having deputies on the road at the time made it possible to get these guys in custody,? said Det. Nick Pung of the Brandon substation. ‘They were arrested five minutes after they left the house. Due to the deputies? abilities and efforts, the suspects were swarmed and taken into custody.?
The suspects were arrested and transported to the Brandon substation for interviews, where confessions from all three were obtained. Confiscated from the suspects? vehicle were five long guns, including an AR-15 with a 30-round loaded magazine. Also recovered were multiple electronic devices.