After a six-day jury trial, Randy Readus, 36, has been convicted in U.S. District Court in Memphis of conspiracy to commit robbery, two counts of aiding and abetting robbery, one count of aiding and abetting attempted robbery, and one count of aiding and abetting the use of a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence. United States Attorney Kevin G. Ritz announced the guilty verdict.
According to the information presented in court, between December 2020 and January 2021, Readus along with co-defendant Julius Black committed business robberies in Arkansas, Mississippi, and Tennessee. On the morning of Christmas Eve, Dec. 24, 2020, Readus drove Black from Memphis to Marion, Arkansas, in a Black Escalade. Black entered Walmart, robbed the Money Center at gunpoint taking a large amount of cash, and fled to where Readus was waiting in the Escalade.
Readus and Black similarly robbed six other places in Arkansas, Tennessee, and in Holly Springs and New Albany, Mississippi.
The Holly Springs robbery was on Jan. 6, 2021 at the Walmart on Mackie Drive. It was on Jan. 12, 2021 at the Walmart in New Albany that the FBI’s Safe Streets Task Force caught Readus and Black as they fled the store. While attempting to flee the scene in the Escalade, officers disabled the vehicle.
Julius Black pled guilty on April 5, 2022. He is scheduled to be sentenced on March 7, 2023.
Sentencing for Readus is set for June 13, 2023, before United States District Judge John T. Fowlkes, Jr.
This case was investigated by the FBI’s Safe Streets Task Force.
