Man Sentenced to 11 Years in Prison for Robbing Gardena Credit Union at Gunpoint
LOS ANGELES, California – A San Pedro man was sentenced to 132 months in federal prison for being the gunman in a violent, takeover-style robbery of a Gardena credit union, where an employee helped with the planning and execution of the heist.
Toyrieon Sessions, 30, a.k.a. “Phat” and “PhatStax,” was sentenced by United States District Judge André Birotte Jr. on [April 21, 2017] for his role in the robbery of the Northrop Grumman Federal Credit Union (NGFCU) on [April 21, 2017].
Sessions was found guilty of three felonies in relation to the robbery: conspiracy to commit armed bank robbery, armed bank robbery, and brandishing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence. The jury delivered the verdict after a four-day trial in June 2019.
The robbery also involved two conspirators who previously have been convicted for their roles in the robbery: Daronnie Thompkins, 32, of the Gramercy Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, who recruited Sessions to be the gunman and knew the credit union’s layout; and Iris Lester, 28, of Inglewood, a NGFCU employee who was Thompkins’ girlfriend at the time and who assisted with the robbery.
On the day of the robbery, Sessions entered the office building in which the credit union is located and walked past NGFCU’s main entrance, entering a side hallway where the NGFCU’s bathrooms were located. Sessions waited in the men’s restroom until Lester and another NGFCU employee exited the women’s bathroom, which was the signal for the robbery to begin. At that point, Sessions left the men’s bathroom, brandished a semi-automatic handgun and used it to force Lester, who was pretending to be a victim, and the other employee to provide access to the credit union’s vault room.
Sessions stole a total of $311,300 from the credit union and placed the cash in a black trash bag before exiting the vault room and fleeing the scene in a silver Dodge Avenger.
Sessions, Thompkins, and Lester were involved in the armed bank robbery of the Northrop Grumman Federal Credit Union (NGFCU) on [April 21, 2017].
The FBI and the Los Angeles Police Department investigated this matter. Assistant United States Attorneys Jeffrey M. Chemerinsky and Bruce K. Riordan of the Violent and Organized Crime Section prosecuted this case.
Key Facts
- State: California
- Category: Violent Crime|Fraud & Financial Crimes
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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