SYRACUSE, NEW YORK – Chantal Jaquez, age 20, of Syracuse, was sentenced yesterday to serve 111 months in federal prison for robbing a Syracuse convenience store and brandishing a semi-automatic 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), United States Marshal David McNulty, Chief Joseph Cecile, City of Syracuse Police Department (SPD), and William Fitzpatrick, Onondaga County District Attorney.
As part of her previous guilty plea to robbery of a business engaged in interstate commerce (the Hobbs Act) and using a firearm in furtherance of a federal crime of violence, Jaquez admitted that on December 21, 2020, at about 10:45 am, she and another person robbed a convenience store in Syracuse, NY. During the robbery, the other robber carried a handgun and Jaquez carried a rifle. Jaquez went behind the counter where the clerk was standing and pointed the rifle at the clerk. While fleeing the store, the other robber fired several rounds from his handgun at the store clerk. One of the bullets struck Jaquez in the leg.
Chief United States District Judge Glenn T. Suddaby also sentenced Jaquez to a five-year term of supervised release to begin after she serves her term of imprisonment.
This case was investigated by the Syracuse Police Department’s Criminal Investigations Division (SPD-CID), the SPD Intelligence Section (SPD-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, and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Sutcliffe.
This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. On May 26, 2021, the Department launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results.