For stealing phones while toting gun, teen handed 12 years

A Little Rock teenager accepted a 12-year prison sentence Thursday for a pair of armed robberies, one of which involved a victim he contacted through Craigslist.

Deshawn Leo-Marcus Wilburd pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated robbery in exchange for the sentencing recommendation by deputy prosecutor Adam Ablondi. He’ll have to serve a three-year suspended sentence after his release.

The sentence will keep the 17-year-old behind bars for at least 8½ years, meaning that with credit for the year he’s been jailed, Wilburd will be eligible for parole after turning 24.

The prosecutor told sentencing Judge Chris Piazza that Wilburd robbed two men of their iPhones 10 days apart in October 2012.

The first victim thought he was meeting with someone who had responded to his Craigslist ad to sell his cellphone. But Wilburd put a gun to the man’s chest and took the phone when they met in the parking lot of the IHOP restaurant on North University Avenue, court records show.

Wilburd’s second holdup was at a Little Rock park at 14000 Otter Creek Park when he asked to borrow a man’s phone, then refused to return it. Instead, Wilburd pulled up his shirt to show a pistol tucked into his pants and dared the man to take the phone, Ablondi told the judge.

Wilburd, represented by attorneys Lisa Johnson and Didi Sallings, is close to resolving a third aggravated-robbery charge and an attempted-kidnapping charge over a December 2012 carjacking at Greater Christ Temple Church at 1200 Bishop Warren Drive in Little Rock. Any prison time Wilburd might receive in that case will not add to the amount of time he was sentenced to serve Thursday, the prosecutor told the judge. He’s due to appear in another court in that case next week.

Two other men already have pleaded guilty for their roles in the crime. Cortez Jawan Smith, 19, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in January for aggravated robbery, while Kawon Profit, 18, also received a 20-year sentence in October for robbery, attempted kidnapping and theft.

Wilburd’s brother, Ubangi Zambezi Robinson, 20, was sentenced to 25 years in prison in July after pleading guilty to five counts of aggravated robbery for a pair of July 2012 armed robberies in which some of the victims were lured with Craigslist ads that promised discount electronic equipment. Robinson will be eligible for parole when he’s 37 after serving 17½ years.