SYRACUSE, NEW YORK – Chantal Jaquez, age 20, of Syracuse, pled guilty today to robbing a Syracuse convenience store and brandishing a rifle in furtherance of the robbery, announced United States Attorney Carla B. Freedman, John B. DeVito, Special Agent in Charge of the New York Field Division of the United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), Chief Kenton Buckner, City of Syracuse Police Department, and William Fitzpatrick, Onondaga County District Attorney.
As part of her guilty plea, Jaquez admitted that on December 21, 2020, at about 10:45 am, she and Akiem Howard robbed a convenience store in Syracuse, NY. During the robbery, Howard carried a handgun and Jaquez carried a high-powered rifle. Jaquez went behind the counter where the clerk was standing and pointed the rifle at the clerk. While fleeing the store, Howard fired several rounds from his handgun at the store clerk. One of the bullets struck Jaquez in the leg. Howard pleaded guilty to related charges on March 1, 2022.
Sentencing is scheduled for July 19, 2022, before the Hon. Thomas J. McAvoy in Binghamton, New York, at which time Jaquez faces a minimum term of imprisonment of 7 years, a maximum term of life, a fine of up to $250,000, and a term of supervised release of up to 5 years. A defendant’s sentence is imposed by a judge based on the particular statute the defendant is charged with violating, the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, and other factors.
This case was investigated by the Syracuse Police Department’s Criminal Investigations Division (CID), the SPD Intelligence Section (Intel), the United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), the Onondaga County District Attorney’s Office, and the United States Marshals Fugitive Task Force as part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Sutcliffe.
Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) is 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.