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TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — A federal grand jury indicted two men who are accused of zip-tying a Tampa family, including a child with autism, and robbing their apartment earlier this year, the Department of Justice announced on Tuesday.
According to the indictment, deputies with the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office responded to an apartment on Patricia Court on Jan. 20, 2026.
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U.S. Department of Justice
When they arrived, they found a family of three who reported being robbed by two men, one of whom entered their apartment after telling them he was an electrical worker who needed to turn off their electricity.
The man, later identified as 47-year-old Jay Wilburn of Tampa, was wearing a hard hat and reflective vest typically worn by utility workers when he arrived at the family’s apartment.
The unit was occupied by an adult woman, an adult man, and a 13-year-old boy with autism, the indictment said.
After being allowed into the apartment, Wilburn brandished a gun, grabbed the woman by the back of her neck, pushed the gun into her stomach, and forced her to zip-tie the man’s and the teenage boy’s hands behind their backs.
Wilburn then zip-tied the woman’s hands before zip-tying the ankles of all three victims, the document said.
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Moments later, the victims heard Wilburn speaking to someone on the phone, and shortly after, a second man entered the unit. The second suspect, later identified as 27-year-old Tampa man Alvaughn Parker, was wearing a face mask, large sunglasses, and was dressed in all black.
The two men stole three guns, two ounces of marijuana, roughly $15,000 in cash, and a bracelet that was taken off the man’s wrist. They left the victims zip-tied and fled the apartment, the indictment said.
Footage from another unit’s camera captured Wilburn, wearing the hard hat and vest, walking through the parking lot toward the victim’s unit before the robbery. A maintenance worker at the complex then told deputies that he had seen a man wearing a yellow safety vest sprinting to a white Dodge van.
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Additionally, video captured by a USF surveillance camera showed a white van traveling away from the complex at around 12:07 p.m., roughly the same time a 911 call about the robbery was placed.
Deputies identified the suspects after a search of law enforcement databases connected Parker to the van. They subpoenaed his phone records, found a call from an unknown number just before the time of the robbery, then connected that number to Wilburn.
One of the victims later confirmed that Wilburn was the man dressed as an electrical worker who first came to the apartment.
Both men were charged with conspiracy to commit Hobbs Act robbery, Hobbs Act robbery, and use of a firearm during the commission of a crime of violence.
Wilburn, having been previously convicted of carjacking, was also charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, the indictment said. He faces a minimum sentence of 25 years and up to life in prison if he is convicted.
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