Dorchester man gets 6 1/2 years for robbing series of stores at double knifepoint

A federal judge this week sentenced a man to 77 months in prison for robbing a series of businesses in Boston in 2023 while he was on probation for a series of armed robberies in New York.

Akeem Lahens, 34, brandished "two large knives" in each of the robberies of stores in Dorchester, Jamaica Plain and Roxbury, prosecutors say. In one robbery, he wore sandals.

At the time of the first robbery, of a Metro PCS store on Tremont Street in Roxbury on April 21, 2023, Lahens was in only his third month of probation for 15 similar armed robberies in New York following a 30-month prison stay.

Lahens pleaded guilty to the Boston robberies earlier this year.

Boston Police officers, State Police and federal agents began investigating Lahens after a friend of his baby mama told police that her friend had told her Lahens had committed two recent robberies and she put 2 and 2 together about two Jamaica Plain holdups after she did "Google searches of the robberies and saw media coverage related to the armed robberies."

In all the robberies, the FBI says, Lahens wielded two knives and tried to force the employees he held up into the back. During the Boost Mobile holdup, he wore a pair of blue sandals. Employees at all the locations quickly picked him out of photo arrays based in part on his distinctive goatee - he did not wear a mask.

Lahens was charged with armed robberies of a Metro by T Mobile Store at 1049 Tremont St. in Roxbury on April 21, a Boost Mobile store at 373 Centre St. in Jamaica Plain's Hyde Square on April 26, the Cricket Wireless store at 306 Centre St. in Jamaica Plain's Jackson Square on April 27 and the Dunkin' Donuts at 1580 Dorchester Ave. on May 4.

In a sentencing memorandum, assistant US Attorney David Tobin urged US District Court Judge Allison Burroughs to hand down a sentence of at least 72 months, saying that Lahen's rough childhood, which included abandonment and sexual and other physical abuse, was not a sufficient reason to be lenient, especially since he's shown himself unable to stop from threatening and committing violent robberies:

The defendant committed four armed robberies threatening store clerks in each instance with two large knives. In one of the robberies, he punched a female clerk in the face resulting in injuries that required hospital attention. In one of the robberies, the defendant threated to kill the clerk victims if the clerk did not comply with his orders. All of this happened while the defendant was on supervised release after having committed approximately fifteen similar robberies in New York. The defendant is a dangerous person and poses a significant threat to the community. While we all hope that another period of incarceration will convince the defendant to abandon his criminal ways, the Court cannot risk the safety of the community on a such a hope.

Tobin detailed the first two robberies:

In the first robbery, the defendant ordered the store clerk into the store's bathroom before fleeing the store. One can only imagine the terror the victim clerk must have felt as the defendant brandishing two large knives escorted her to the back of the store.

In the second robbery, the defendant held the two knives to the hip of the clerk and stated, "I'm having a bad fucking day, give me all the cash." The defendant then forced the victim clerk to the back of the store where he made her open the safe. When the victim clerk resisted the defendant's efforts to push her into the store's bathroom, the defendant punched her in the face. The victim clerk was later transported to the hospital by ambulance because of the facial injury inflicted on her by the defendant.

Lahen's attorney, Joshua Hanye, called for a slightly less severe sentence, of 66 months, or 5 1/2 years - 60 months for the Boston robberies and 6 for committing them while on probation for the New York robberies.

He gave particulars of the abuse Lahen's suffered at the hands of his adoptive mother after he was abandoned, which he says helped turn him into an addict and said the shorter the sentence the sooner he would get into the sort of intense counseling and treatment he will need to get over his earlier trauma, while still ensuring he is punished for what he did:

No amount of incarceration will heal the underlying conditions that drove Mr. Lahen’s offending. Despite the presence of some rehabilitation programs, incarceration is fundamentally designed for incapacitation and punishment. Indeed, it is a place where suicide attempts result in disciplinary infractions.