ELIZABETH — Two members of the Crips street gang have been sentenced to 45 years in prison each for robbing nearly a dozen people in Elizabeth at gunpoint during an hour-long crime spree, authorities said Wednesday. Under the terms imposed Tuesday by Superior Court Judge Miriam Span in Elizabeth, Tony Canty, 30, and Jacquan Lee, 22, must serve slightly...
Tony Canty, 30, left, and Jacquan Lee, 22, right, were sentenced to 45 years in prison each for robbing almost a dozen people at gunpoint during an hour-long crime spree.ELIZABETH — Two members of the Crips street gang have been sentenced to 45 years in prison each for robbing nearly a dozen people in Elizabeth at gunpoint during an hour-long crime spree, authorities said Wednesday.
Under the terms imposed Tuesday by Superior Court Judge Miriam Span in Elizabeth, Tony Canty, 30, and Jacquan Lee, 22, must serve slightly more than 38 years of their sentences before becoming eligible for parole, said Assistant Union County Prosecutor Joshua McMahon.
Canty and Lee were convicted June 17 of 16 counts of armed robbery and 16 counts of weapons offenses each after a month-long trial.
McMahon said Lee, Canty and an unknown man approached groups gathered outside bars and on street corners and stoops on July 30, 2007. Driven though the city by one of Lee’s girlfriends, the men surrounded their victims, pointed loaded sawed-off shotguns at them and demanded cash and other items, including their cell phones and iPods, the assistant prosecutor said. He said victims, who ranged from 14 to 21 years old, and witnesses told police the men shouted gang slogans related to the Crips as they fled.
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• Two alleged Crips gang members are convicted of Elizabeth armed robbery spree