GRAND RAPIDS, MI – Those who warn of the danger of video games may have more ammunition after a 25-year-old Grand Rapids man pleaded guilty to responding to Craigslist ads offering X-Box and PS3 game systems for sale by robbing the sellers at gunpoint.
Leroy Montrell Simpson faces as much as life in prison after he admitted to setting up meetings with two people selling popular video game systems online on June 4.
Simpson met one of the sellers on Kalamazoo Avenue, not far Simpson’s home,
then met the other in the 1000 block of Alexander Street SE. Both victims were robbed the same night.
Related:Two Craigslist sellers robbed at gunpoint in separate exchanges
Grand Rapids Police were able to trace Simpson through the phone he used to arrange the meetings. Police say they recorded Simpson confessing to the crimes.
In Kent County Circuit Court on Wednesday, July 30, Simpson pleaded guilty to two counts of armed robbery as his attorney Ryan Maesen pointed out to Judge Dennis Leiber that a fake handgun was used in the robberies.
In exchange for the guilty plea, the Kent County Prosecutor’s Office agreed not to charge Simpson as a repeat offender, which could have significantly increased his prison time when he is sentenced Aug. 26.
Simpson, who says he dropped out of school in the 10th grade, pleaded guilty in 2008 to attempted larceny and was placed on probation for 30 months. He violated his probation and in 2012 was sentenced to 212 days in the Kent County Jail.
Simpson remains in the Kent County Jail pending sentencing.
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