Valerie Meneses, Gunpoint Robbery, Connecticut 2024

HARTFORD, Conn. – A brazen gunpoint robbery that shook the internet marketplaces in Connecticut has landed a 24-year-old woman in federal prison for more than five years.

Valerie Meneses, 24, was sentenced to 63 months of imprisonment, followed by two years of supervised release, for her role in a gunpoint robbery of a victim who was selling an iPhone on Facebook Marketplace.

According to court documents and statements made in court, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, the Hartford Police Department, and the Middletown Police Department investigated a series of gunpoint robberies of individuals who advertised items for sale on internet marketplaces, such as Facebook Marketplace and OfferUp.

At an arranged meeting place to sell their items, which included cell phones and luxury sneakers and accessories, the purported purchaser would brandish a firearm, force the victim to hand over the luxury goods, and flee. The investigation revealed that in August and September 2022, Meneses’ brother, John Villegas, also known as ‘Kirby,’ committed five armed robberies in Hartford with Jalen Lasalle, and one armed robbery with Meneses in Middletown.

Meneses used a Facebook account to arrange the purported purchase of an iPhone from a victim who advertised its sale on Facebook Marketplace. On August 20, 2022, Meneses traveled with Villegas to meet the victim at a restaurant parking lot in Middletown.

When the victim arrived at the meeting location, Villegas entered the victim’s car, inspected the iPhone, pulled out a firearm, and told the victim he was ‘out of luck.’ Villegas also attempted to grab the victim’s personal cellphone and threatened to shoot him, before running to his waiting vehicle and fleeing with Meneses.

Judge Nagala ordered Meneses to pay $1,000 in restitution to the victim.

Meneses was arrested on October 5, 2023. On May 15, 2024, she pleaded guilty to interference with commerce by robbery (Hobbs Act robbery), and carrying and using a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence.

Meneses, who is released on a $25,000 bond, is required to report to prison on December 15.

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