Charleston, South Carolina --- United States Attorney Peter
M. McCoy, Jr., announced today that D’Angelo Antonio Coakley, 30, of Mount
Pleasant, was sentenced via teleconference to 24 years in federal prison after
pleading guilty to a series of armed robberies that culminated in a high-speed
chase and shots fired at South Carolina Highway Patrol Officers.
“It’s important for those who choose to commit crimes to
know that even in the pandemic the U.S. Attorney’s Office is open for business,”
said U.S. Attorney McCoy. “We will hold those who break the law accountable.”
Evidence presented to the court showed Coakley was charged
along with three co-defendants: Julius Hamilton Washington, 29, of Summerville;
Malik Juwan Gadist, 23, of Mount Pleasant; and Paul Anthony Walker, 24, of
Goose Creek. The four were indicted in
2018 and charged with robbing multiple businesses and business employees at
gunpoint. Information provided at
Coakley’s guilty plea established that the four defendants conspired to commit
multiple armed robberies of businesses, including a Dollar General Store in
Awendaw, a Verizon Store in Summerville, and a Verizon Store in Waxhaw, North
Carolina.
The string of robberies ended shortly after the four robbed
the Verizon Store in Waxhaw on February 10, 2017. Like in other robberies, the four held the
store employee at gunpoint while they stole cell phones and electronic devices
from the store’s safe. Immediately after
the robbery the defendants were tracked from North Carolina into South
Carolina, where Troopers with the South Carolina Highway Patrol located their
car and attempted to stop them. The
defendants did not stop, and instead fled at high speeds and fired shots at the
pursuing Troopers. No Troopers were hit
by the shots, and the pursuing Troopers were eventually able to push the
defendants’ car into a median where it crashed, and all four defendants
fled. Investigators were able to
identify each defendant and determine their involvement in the crimes.
Coakley is the third defendant to be sentenced. Defendant Walker was previously sentenced to
10 years imprisonment, defendant Gadist was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment,
and defendant Washington has yet to be sentenced.
United States District Court Judge David C. Norton sentenced
Coakley to 288 months in federal prison, to be followed by a five-year term of
court-ordered supervision. There is no parole in the federal system. The
sentencing was conducted virtually by telephone under the CARES Act passed by
Congress last month, so that the parties did not appear in the courtroom.
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of
Investigation, Charleston County Sheriff’s Office, Dorchester County Sheriff’sOffice, Richland County Sheriff’s Department, South Carolina Department of
Public Safety Highway Patrol, South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, and
Waxhaw, North Carolina, Police Department.
This case was prosecuted as part of the joint federal,
state, and local Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), the centerpiece of the
Department of Justice’s violent crime reduction efforts. PSN is an evidence-based program proven to be
effective at reducing violent crime. Through PSN, a broad spectrum of
stakeholders work together to identify the most pressing violent crime problems
in the community and develop comprehensive solutions to address them. As part
of this strategy, PSN focuses enforcement efforts on the most violent offenders
and partners with locally based prevention and reentry programs for lasting
reductions in crime.
Assistant United States Attorney Nathan Williams of the
Charleston office prosecuted the case.
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