NORRISTOWN >> A Lower Pottsgrove woman who admitted to conspiring with a Pottstown man to rob another man at gunpoint outside a West Pottsgrove bar will be under court supervision for about five years.
Latia Lofton, 29, of the 100 block of North Pleasantview Road, was sentenced in Montgomery County Court to 11 1/2 to 23 months in the county jail on charges of robbery and conspiracy to commit robbery in connection with the 11:40 p.m. Aug. 20, 2016, incident outside the China Bar at 1506 W. High St. in West Pottsgrove. Lofton previously pleaded guilty to those charges.
Judge William R. Carpenter also ordered Lofton to complete three years’ probation following parole.
Prosecutors maintained Lofton conspired with gunman Darrell Accoo Johnson during the incident. During a trial in March, a jury convicted Johnson, 32, of the 400 block of North Charlotte Street, Pottstown, of charges of robbery, aggravated assault, person not to possess a firearm and conspiracy to commit robbery in connection with the shooting, during which the victim was shot in the foot and back during a botched robbery.
Carpenter previously sentenced Johnson to 25 to 50 years in state prison in connection with the shooting incident.
“She set up somebody to get robbed and that is a dangerous business. She was instrumental in setting it up,” said county Assistant District Attorney Benjamin McKenna, explaining Lofton’s role in the crime.
Lofton testified against Johnson at his trial.
McKenna made the judge aware of Lofton’s cooperation with authorities during the trial, calling it “significant.”
Defense lawyer Francis Walsh argued for leniency on behalf of Lofton, pointing out her cooperation and the fact she is a mother of young children and that she has already spent five months in jail in connection with the matter.
An investigation began when West Pottsgrove police responded to a call for an ambulance involving a gunshot victim outside the China Bar. Upon arrival, police found a 48-year-old male with two gunshot wounds, according to the criminal complaint filed by West Pottsgrove Detective Timothy Roeder and county Detective Jeffrey Koch.
The victim was transported to Reading Hospital Trauma Center for treatment. Investigators recovered two Speer .45-caliber shell casings at the scene, court documents indicate.
During the investigation, police spoke to Lofton, who they described as “initially uncooperative.”
Officers later spoke to the victim who told them he was at the China Bar and was socializing there with Lofton. At one point the pair went outside to smoke and the victim got into the driver’s seat of the car he was driving and Lofton remained standing outside the car next to the driver’s side, according to the arrest affidavit.
A male, later identified as Johnson, approached Lofton and the victim with a gun and grabbed Lofton’s purse from her shoulder, detectives alleged. Johnson then turned toward the male victim and demanded he empty his pockets and hand over his cellphone and keys.
Johnson then began backing away with the gun pointed at the victim and stated, “Remember me from back in the day, old head?” according to the criminal complaint.
“(The victim) said he knew at that point that the man with the gun was going to kill him,” Roeder and Koch alleged in the arrest affidavit.
The victim grabbed a 9mm semi-automatic handgun that was on the passenger seat and fired one or two shots at the same time Johnson shot at him. The victim was struck in the foot and in the back, according to court papers.
The victim then ran to a nearby Laundromat where he saw Johnson come out from around the other side of the bar. Johnson fired at least two more shots at the victim and ran along High Street toward Turkey Hill, police alleged.
During the course of the investigation, police said they found inconsistencies with information provided by Lofton, leading police to suspect she was involved in the armed robbery, court documents indicate.
A search of Lofton’s cellphone revealed that she had been communicating with Johnson before the robbery occurred, telling him where she and the victim were and instructing him to also take her purse during the robbery, detectives said.
“These communications demonstrate that Lofton and Johnson conspired in the armed robbery of (the victim) and this conspiracy included the taking of Lofton’s purse to conceal her active involvement in this armed robbery,” Roeder and Koch alleged in the arrest affidavit.
Investigators also obtained surveillance footage from a camera near the bar that captured a van leaving the scene. That van, authorities alleged, resembled Johnson’s vehicle.
Police later searched a Sunrise Drive residence associated with Johnson and found a black holster and a Ruger P-90 .45-caliber firearm with a magazine and four Speer .45-caliber rounds, the same caliber and brand of ammunition recovered at the scene of the shooting, according to court documents.
