SAN FRANCISCO — A Vallejo man who was on bail and faced federal charges for robbing a pharmacy when he allegedly made off with a truck full of prescription drugs was sentenced Wednesday to seven years and five months in prison.
Lembrent Rubin, 37, was sentenced by US District Judge Charles Breyer after pleading guilty to federal robbery charges. Rubin has been in Santa Rita Prison in Dublin since his arrest in September 2019; he allegedly stole a pharmaceutical delivery truck near Costco in Vallejo and was in possession of a loaded gun when he was soon arrested at a nearby apartment complex.
Prosecutors asked for a sentence of 11 years and 10 months, writing in court records that Rubin was caught five times with a loaded gun between 2015 and 2019 and that he is suspected of a non-fatal shooting in San Francisco.
“Up to this point, (Rubin) has spent only a few days in jail in connection with his state gun conviction, and the government acknowledges that the sentence of more than ten years in prison represents a substantial increase in punishment,” the two U.S. Attorneys wrote in an official letter. summary of the verdict. “However, in the years leading up to the robbery, the defendant’s criminal behavior escalated dangerously, and at the same time, the defendant showed little respect for the justice system.”
During an October 2018 robbery that resulted in federal charges, Rubin walked into a Safeway in San Francisco, sat at a drugstore counter, brandished a gun and demanded methadone, prosecutors’ court records say. He was charged at the end of November 2018 and two weeks later, US Justice of the Peace Sally Kim released him on $50,000 bail.
In a defense memo sentencing, Rubin’s lawyer Laura Robinson wrote in court records that Rubin’s life went into a “downward spiral” after his brother Tyrance Garnett was shot on January 1, 2018 in Oakland.
“(Rubin) is very remorseful for having made the pharmacist… endure such a terrible incident,” Robinson wrote. “In addition, he repents that the imprisonment physically deprived him of the opportunity to participate in the lives of his children. Finally, he repents that he deceived himself by depriving himself of his freedom, and admits that he has no one to blame but himself.
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