Three Vallejo residents pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to charges that they followed a husband and wife from the Lytton Casino in San Pablo to South San Francisco and robbed them at gunpoint, San Mateo County prosecutors said.
The incident unfolded last Sunday after the husband and wife, ages 62 and 61, were driving home to South City after a successful day at the casino, according to the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office.
Suspects James Louis Brisker, 26, Eric Hamilton, 31, and Jaymon Dmareae Matthews, 24, allegedly followed them from the casino. When the couple stopped at a Walgreens in South City, the robbers “pulled their vehicle behind the victims and blocked them in,” according to prosecutors.
Brisker allegedly approached the wife, who was driving, and put a handgun to her head and demanded all her money, prosecutors said.
Matthews, who didn’t have a gun, allegedly confronted the husband and demanded his money.
When the wife started to get out of the vehicle, Brisker pushed her back in, prosecutors said. The suspects made off with her purse, which contained $2,000 in cash, and $400 in cash from the husband. The suspects fled in their vehicle, but not before the victims got the car’s license plate and description. They called 911, leading to a countywide alert. The suspect’s vehicle was stopped on the I-280 freeway, and the purse, worth itself $2,700, and the cash as well as the victim’s ID and credit cards, were recovered by officers, prosecutors said.
When the suspects were booked, cash was found in Matthews’ underwear, they added.
Today, the defendants pleaded not guilty to all charges connected to the case. The case was set for preliminary hearing on April 16. Bail was set at $100,000 for Brisker and Matthews and at $50,000 for Hamilton, and all three defendants remain in custody, San Mateo County prosecutors said.
