A Superior Court of California judge has sentenced two men for the 2018 home invasion robbery of an illegal gambling house in south Sacramento.
For his role in the Franklin Boulevard robbery, Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Michael Sweet sentenced Eddie Lee White, 37, to 40 years and eight months in prison. Judge Sweet, however, likely soured John Edward Blount’s Friday by sentencing him “to 301 years to life in prison.”
previous convictions for robbery and assault
According to a Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office news release on Monday, Blount’s previous convictions for robbery and assault with a firearm meant his invasion of the gambling house triggered big prison time under California’s “Three Strikes” law.
Ahead of Friday’s sentencing, a jury in November found Blount and White guilty of six and three counts apiece of robbery and attempted robbery, respectively. The jury also convicted Blount of being “a felon in possession of a firearm.”
Prosecutors said that Blount and White entered the illegal gambling house armed with guns at around 1:20am in January 2018. Holding the victims at gunpoint, the pair stole cash and personal items, throwing many of the people to the ground and physically assaulting them.
A woman inside the same house watching security camera footage called police to report the robbery, stating that the robbers stole cash and items from people “playing cards and possibly gambling in the garage.”
