MARTINEZ — A Contra Costa County jury has found an Oakland man guilty for a string of high-value watch robberies, authorities said.
The jury convicted 27-year-old Shane Downs on four counts of armed robbery for high-value watches, as well as a charge of being a convicted felon possessing a gun, according to a statement from Contra Costa County District Attorney’s spokesperson Ted Asregadoo.
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The robberies happened in 2021.
Asregadoo said that each count of the robbery charges alleged that Downs followed his victims from a public place to their homes and robbed them at gunpoint while wearing a mask over his face and head.
The watches stolen ranged in value from $3,500 to $15,000.
Asregadoo said the jury acquitted Downs on a July 2020 charge stemming from a robbery in Orinda.
According to Asregadoo, the jury agreed that Downs robbed two of his victims on April 18, 2021, following a woman from Walnut Creek to a home in Oakley and another from Walnut Creek to Concord. The jury concluded that in the first robbery, Downs brandished a gun and pointed it at the woman and that in the second, he pointed the gun and hit the victim in the head with it, Asregadoo said.
Downs took a Rolex in the first robbery that day and a Panerai Luminor watch in the second, Asregadoo said.
The other robberies happened on May 24, 2021, and May 30, 2021, respectively. Asregadoo said that the jury concluded Downs followed a person from Walnut Creek to Danville in the first one and from a Walnut Creek store to a Walnut Creek home in the second.
Downs is scheduled to be sentenced for his crimes on Nov. 15.
