A Newark man was sentenced on July 30 to 225 months in prison for committing 14 armed robberies of businesses throughout Union, Essex, Hudson and Bergen counties, including the May 20, 2013 robbery of the Subway store at the intersection of Pompton and Bloomfield avenues in Verona
According to the statement from U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman, Jamar Darby, aka “Rhino,” 27, previously pleaded guilty to two counts of an indictment charging him with conspiracy to commit Hobbs Act robberies and with brandishing a firearm during one of those robberies. U.S. District Judge William H. Walls imposed the sentenced in Newark federal court.
In the Verona robbery, two men who entered the store, one of whom had a gun. They ordered a female employee to lie down and bound her hands and feet with plastic zip ties. After asking her how to work the cash register, they took about $400 in cash and fled in a waiting car.
Darby was the first of the three robbers to be arrested, picked up at his home in Newark just a month after the Verona crime by FBI special agents. The FBI arrested a second man, Antwon Yarbrough, in September. The third man arrested in connection with the Verona robbery, Bobby Dawson, was the first to plead guilty last November. Yarbrough followed in December
Under the so-called Hobbs Act, each charges each carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. The charge of brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence carries a maximum penalty of life in prison and a mandatory minimum sentence of seven years in prison, which must run consecutively to any other prison term. Each count also carries a maximum fine of $250,000, or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense. In addition to the more than 18-year prison term, Judge Walls sentenced Darby to three years of supervised release and ordered restitution $73,324.
According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court, Darby conspired with others to rob these businesses:
Pao Da Terra (Newark, Dec. 29, 2012), Lukoil (Newark, Jan. 20, 2013), Newark Community Pharmacy (Newark, Jan. 24, 2013), Linden Stationary (Linden, Feb. 1, 2013), Delta Gas Station (Newark, Feb. 1, 2013), Shoppers Express (Belleville, Feb. 2, 2013), Krauszers (Kearny, Feb. 10, 2013), Krauszers (Bloomfield, Feb. 13, 2013), Pat’s Deli, Newark (Feb. 19, 2013), Smashburger (Paramus, March 16, 2013), Krauszers (Bloomfield, March 29, 2013), MS&K Confectionery (Maplewood, April 1, 2013), Belleville News and Food (Belleville, April 17, 2013), South Wood Discount Liquor (Linden, April 17, 2013), Krauszers (West Orange, April 24, 2013), Newark Community Pharmacy (Newark, May 1, 2013), and Subway Restaurant (Verona, May 20, 2013).
U.S. Attorney Fishman credited special agents of the FBI, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Aaron T. Ford in Newark, with the investigation leading to Darby’s guilty plea. He also thanked the Verona Police Department, and the police of Belleville, Bloomfield, Kearny, Linden, Maplewood, Newark, Paramus, and West Orange, along with the N.J. State Police and the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office, for their work on this case.
