Check out the facts of this armed robbery:
"In July 2014, Hampton began working as a manager at the Rainforest Cafe, a restaurant in the Fisherman’s Wharf area that occupied several floors of a large building. . . . In 2015, about a year into his employment, Hampton asked for time off over the July 4 holiday weekend. After the general manager denied the request, Hampton stopped going to work. Hampton came to the restaurant later in July to pick up his final check, but he did not return his set of keys to the restaurant . . .
Around 1:00 a.m. on Friday, August 28, 2015, another manager, E.S., was in the manager’s office. As was usual, the door to the manager’s office was open. E.S. was sitting in a rolling chair, finishing paperwork, when someone wearing a red motorcycle helmet came up behind him and put their arm around his throat.
The person wheeled E.S. to the safe where the cash was kept, and “made a hand gesture” indicating E.S. should open it. E.S. responded that the safe was time-locked and could not be opened, which was untrue. The person then produced “a silver pistol,” cocked it, and “tapped the safe to . . . indicate that they knew the safe opened.” E.S., who was not familiar with guns, testified that he could not be sure whether the pistol was real or operable. Nonetheless, he was frightened, and he opened the safe, which contained almost $9,000.
The person then rolled E.S. to a corner of the manager’s office, bound his arms, and placed a shirt over his head. It seemed to E.S. that the person was “really slow” and “took their time when they tied [him] up,” which was not done “aggressive[ly].” After several minutes during which E.S. could hear “rummaging,” the person left, having “never said a word.” E.S. was eventually able to free himself and call 911. After doing so, he realized that the cash was missing from the safe.
The Rainforest Cafe had a surveillance system covering much of the restaurant, including hallways and the manager’s office. Recordings from the night of the robbery, which the general manager reviewed with the police, showed a “very stocky, mus[cl]y” person “[w]earing dark clothing, in a motorcycle helmet with a dark shield, so you could not see the face,” enter the building through the Mason Street door. The person proceeded to the third floor and into the manager’s office, where the robbery occurred.
The general manager testified that it struck him “[h]ow calmly and slowly the person . . . came in the building and how familiar it appeared to be to them,” as they “kn[ew] exactly where to go to commit the armed robbery, where the money would be and on what floor.” The general manager also observed that the person’s “walk and body style” were similar to those of Hampton, whom the general manager described as a “very clean, crisp, very mus[cl]y man, very, very strong powerful man.” Similarly, E.S., who was friends with Hampton, testified that Hampton was “in good shape” and “definitely of muscular build.”
A nearby business’s surveillance footage showed the suspect, wearing a red motorcycle helmet, enter a white four-door sedan soon after the robbery. At the time, Hampton and his wife had a similar car, a white Nissan Altima.
Based on the robber’s appearance and familiarity with the building, the general manager suspected the robber was Hampton. After forming this suspicion, the general manager watched surveillance footage from the previous Monday morning, August 24, 2015, at the end of the last night shift before pickup of the weekend receipts later that day. The footage showed a person enter the building through the Mason Street door, check the hallway doors and, finding them locked, turn around and leave. A Rainforest Cafe cook testified that around 1:00 a.m. on that morning, he was outside the restaurant with friends and saw Hampton walking back and forth. The cook then saw Hampton leave in a white four-door sedan.
The prosecution also presented evidence obtained from Hampton’s cell phone. Hampton sent incriminating text messages to another man leading up to and immediately after the robbery. In addition, other text messages indicated that Hampton paid two significant debts shortly after the robbery occurred."
The jury ultimately convicts Hampton of the robbery. What do you think his sentence was?
Answer: Three years of probation.
I would have thought the guy would have gotten a much longer sentence. Even in San Francisco.
