{"id":109848,"date":"2025-12-26T20:33:06","date_gmt":"2025-12-26T20:33:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/109848\/"},"modified":"2025-12-26T20:33:06","modified_gmt":"2025-12-26T20:33:06","slug":"getaway-driver-in-ghost-town-robbery-spree-sentenced-to-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/109848\/","title":{"rendered":"Getaway driver in ‘Ghost Town’ robbery spree sentenced to prison"},"content":{"rendered":"

OAKLAND \u2014 A man who served as the getaway driver in a high-end robbery spree by West Oakland gang members<\/a> was sentenced to six years and three months in federal prison, records show.<\/p>\n

Garland Rabon, 30, argued in court for a five-year probation term. He was sentenced Dec. 15 by U.S. District Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin, who gave Rabon time to enjoy the holiday season with his family. He won\u2019t have to report to prison until May 2026.<\/p>\n

The robberies occurred in 2022, reaping close to $1 million in cash, jewels and other valuables. The year was capped off by a surprise birthday party for one of the crew members in December 2022, where the defendants flaunted stolen jewelry for a video camera and talked about their newfound riches<\/a>. Video of the party was later seized by prosecutors and used as evidence to argue for lengthy prison sentences.<\/p>\n

In court, prosecutors argued that Rabon was a longtime, dedicated member of the Ghost Town gang<\/a> \u2014 a violent group that has existed in West Oakland for decades \u2014 and that he committed his crimes while serving as a \u201cyouth mentor\u201d through a program funded by the city of Oakland. The defense argued that he expressed \u201ctrue remorse\u201d and that his crimes were \u201cmistakes caused by a lifetime of trauma and drug addiction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rabon described his life in a letter to the court, listing times he lost loved ones, went through financial hardships and eventually came to have a new perspective in life.<\/p>\n

\u201cThroughout the year and half my case was pending, I spent more time with my kids than I ever had before, and attended drug and mental counseling for the first time in my life,\u201d Rabon wrote. \u201cI am a changed person and never want to return to the life I previously lived.\u201d<\/p>\n

The tragedies Rabon endured include the loss of his 17-year-old brother, Deshawn Rabon, who was killed when a car he was riding in collided with a funeral home<\/a>\u00a0in 2015. A defense sentencing memo includes a picture where Garland Rabon poses alongside Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee, holding up two certificates her earned through participation in anti-violence programs this year.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors argued that Rabon\u2019s role as a getaway driver \u201cmade the rapid takeover and speedy departure possible,\u201d during one of the robberies and that he pledged his loyalty to the Ghost Town gang on Instagram with a post that said: \u201cTil death do us apart \/ I\u2019m with the gang \/ I took my vows.\u201d<\/p>\n

The robberies included a March 2022 incident where a coin store owner in San Francisco lost an estimated $300,000 and a November 2022 stickup that cost a San Pablo jeweler estimated losses of up to $500,000. There was also an August 2022 robbery, targeting an Oakland cannabis dispensary, with a business loss estimated at $100,000.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OAKLAND \u2014 A man who served as the getaway driver in a high-end robbery spree by West Oakland…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69755,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[861,862,15567,863,1780,101,103,102,104,106,105,58949,58948],"class_list":{"0":"post-109848","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco","8":"tag-bay-area-crime","9":"tag-california-crime","10":"tag-ghost-town-gang","11":"tag-oakland-crime","12":"tag-oakland-robbery","13":"tag-san-francisco","14":"tag-san-francisco-headlines","15":"tag-san-francisco-news","16":"tag-sf","17":"tag-sf-headlines","18":"tag-sf-news","19":"tag-west-oakland-party","20":"tag-west-oakland-robberies"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109848\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}