$800,000 Jewelry Store Robbery Leads to Prison Sentence

United States Attorney Jan Sharp announced that Kenneth S. Jones, 41, of Omaha, Nebraska, was sentenced today in federal court in Omaha for the crime of robbery in violation of the Hobbs Act. United States District Judge Brian C. Buescher sentenced Jones to 120 months’ imprisonment, to be served consecutive to the 220-month sentence to imprisonment Jones received in the Southern District of Texas on June 6, 2019. Judge Buescher also ordered Jones to pay over $500,000 in restitution. There is no parole in the federal system. After his release from prison, he will begin a three-year term of supervised release.

On the evening of February 17, 2018, an Omaha jewelry store, Pretty in Patina, was robbed by a lone suspect, later determined to be Jones. Jones entered the store wearing a mask and gloves and approached the jewelry counter, pointing what appeared to be a handgun at the store clerk and demanding jewelry. He threw a garbage bag at one of the employees and placed a pillowcase on the counter. Employees put jewelry in the pillowcase and Jones left the garbage bag in the store. Numerous items were taken from the store, valued at several hundred thousand dollars.  The same day, the Omaha Police Department crime lab determined that four fingerprints found on the garbage bag belonged to Jones. On March 2, 2018, Omaha Police officers executed a warrant to search defendant’s last known address in Omaha. Officers located two rings from the jewelry store and investigators determined that Jones gave them to a resident who was instructed to sell them.

On April 17, 2018, having fled to Texas, Jones robbed a convenience store in McAllen, stole a store clerk’s car, and drove to a bank. Jones then robbed the bank of over $10,000 using what appeared to be a handgun and abandoned the stolen car. Jones hailed a taxi on foot and was tracked to a hotel in the area. Investigators searched his room at the hotel and recovered most of the cash from the bank, a realistic-appearing black BB gun, and the car keys to the stolen car he had left behind at the bank. The taxi driver was interviewed and reported that Jones had used the taxi service to travel to several nearby jewelry and pawn shops.

On April 18, 2018, investigators contacted a pawn shop in McAllen, Texas. They learned that between March 18, 2018, and April 14, 2018, the defendant pawned approximately 40 pieces of jewelry there. Investigators confirmed that several of those jewelry pieces were taken in the robbery of the jewelry store in Omaha. Jones was located and arrested in McAllen and a realistic looking BB gun was found in his motel room.

Jones was thereafter convicted of Bank Robbery by Force or Violence in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas and was sentenced to imprisonment for 220 months.

This case was investigated by the Omaha Police Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the McAllen (Texas) Police Department.