Emmanuel Lance Howard, Conspiracy to Commit Armed Robbery, Illinois 2020

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Emmanuel Lance Howard, Conspiracy to Commit Armed Robbery, Quad Cities IL, 2020

PEORIA, Ill. – A federal jury on August 23, 2024, found two Quad Cities, Illinois, men – Emmanuel Lance Howard, 24, of Davenport, Iowa, and Evander Allen Jordan, 39, of Rock Island, Illinois – guilty of conspiracy to commit armed robbery and multiple robbery and firearms charges following a two-week trial in Peoria, Illinois, before Chief U.S. District Judge Sara Darrow.

During the trial, the government presented evidence to establish that in the summer and fall of 2020, Howard and Jordan committed ten separate armed robberies in the Quad Cities area, including five armed robberies of retail stores in Rock Island and Moline, one armed robbery and shooting of a man, and a carjacking of a woman in Rock Island, along with three armed robberies of retail stores in Davenport.

According to the indictment, during their violent crime spree, they stole firearms, money, jewelry, and other property, and shot two men, pistol-whipped and assaulted others, and repeatedly threatened the lives of all of the more than 20 victims.

One such victim repeatedly begged for her life and another was so terrified that she feared her young son at home, across the street from the robbery, would hear his mother being shot.

Following an extensive investigation involving the Rock Island, Davenport, and Moline police departments, as well as the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (“ATF”) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), Howard and Jordan were charged in 2021 in a fifteen-count indictment with one count of conspiracy to commit armed robbery, five counts of Hobbs Act robbery, one count of carjacking, six counts of brandishing or discharging a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, and one count of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

Howard and Jordan have been detained in federal custody since their federal arrests in 2021.

The statutory penalty for the conspiracy to commit robbery and robbery offenses is up to 20 years in prison; the statutory penalty for the carjacking offense is up to 15 years in prison; the statutory penalty for the brandishing of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence offenses is a minimum consecutive sentence for each offense of seven years to life in prison; the statutory penalty for the discharge of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence offense is a minimum consecutive sentence of 10 years to life in prison; and the statutory penalty for the possession of a firearm by a convicted felon offense is up to 10 years in prison.

As a result, Howard faces a statutory mandatory minimum sentence of 45 years and up to life in prison for just the firearm offenses; because Jordan has a prior federal conviction for possession of a firearm during a crime of violence, he faces a minimum of 63 years to life in prison just for the firearms offenses.