Forrest J. Hardy, Robbery, Interference with Commerce, Louisiana 2020

January 7, 2020, at approximately 6:41 p.m., Forrest J. Hardy, 33, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, entered the Boost Mobile Store located at 8180 Scenic Hwy, Baton Rouge, and pointed a firearm at an employee. Hardy, who was wearing a mask, demanded money kept in the cash registers, which the employee complied with. Hardy removed the cash and fled the scene.

Hardy was arrested the next day, January 8, 2020, at approximately 8:25 p.m., by law enforcement officers with the Baton Rouge Police Department. The officers stopped Hardy in a 1999 Lexus SUV, which bore distinct coloring on one of its sides. On the front passenger seat, they observed a black handgun with an extended magazine and a black mask.

During the execution of a search warrant on the 1999 Lexus SUV, law enforcement personnel found an assault-style firearm, a .40-caliber Glock semiautomatic pistol with an extended magazine, stolen cash, a ski mask, the gloves used by Hardy during the robberies, and ammunition.

Hardy had previously been convicted of armed robbery in East Baton Rouge Parish in 2007 and convicted of second-degree battery and false imprisonment with a dangerous weapon in Lafayette Parish in 2019.

Forrest J. Hardy faces up to 20 years imprisonment for the robbery conviction, 10 years imprisonment for the possession of a firearm by a convicted felon conviction, and a mandatory minimum consecutive term of imprisonment of not less than seven years and up to life for the brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence conviction.

U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Gathe, Jr. stated, “I would like to publicly thank our Assistant United States Attorneys and our partners, the Baton Rouge Police Department and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives for the time and effort to prepare this matter for trial. Their efforts led to the government removing a violent offender and several guns off the streets of Baton Rouge.”

This matter was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Baton Rouge Police Department. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Robert W. Piedrahita and Jeremy S. Johnson.

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