Stevenson Charles was arrested in Georgia by the FBI in November after investigators decided that he had used the LGBTQ app to focus on victims whom he would kidnap and mug at gunpoint. He was extradited to Miami-Dade County late final 12 months on federal carjacking and firearm expenses.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Charles admitted to a few separate robberies between October and early November 2022, together with one through which he shot a person and left him clinging to life close to a Miami-Dade County railroad observe. Charles pleaded responsible the day of his scheduled trial on February 13.
While the preliminary legal grievance in November described two robberies, an indictment returned a month later included expenses for the third incident involving the taking pictures.
Charles faces a possible life sentence. He might obtain a hate crime enhancement below federal sentencing tips.
The string of crimes started final October, when Charles invited a person he met on-line to his home in Miami, purportedly for intercourse, and instantly held him at gunpoint, in line with the legal grievance. He pressured the sufferer to drive to an ATM to withdraw money after which dumped him on the facet of the freeway, driving off within the man’s automobile, prosecutors alleged.
The following month, Charles invited one other man from Grindr for a would-be date, and when the person arrived, Charles jumped in his automobile, armed with a pistol, the grievance alleged. Inside the car, he beat the sufferer and rifled by his telephone, in line with prosecutors. Upon discovering photos of the sufferer with different males, Charles allegedly declared, “I’m going to kill all of you.”
Charles pressured the second sufferer to drive him to retail pharmacy shops, the place he racked up expenses on the person’s bank card, prosecutors alleged.
In the third incident, Charles met one other man on Grindr in November and organized to hyperlink up with him in Dania Beach, dangling the prospect of a sexual encounter. Once there, Charles pulled a gun on him and instructed him that he hated homosexual individuals and believed they need to be punished, the DOJ says.
Charles pressured the sufferer to drive to a house in Aventura, the place the sufferer had been residing with a pair. Brandishing his gun, he herded them into the sufferer’s automobile and directed them to ATMs to withdraw greater than $1,500 for him, in line with the DOJ.
After dropping the couple again at their dwelling and stealing their telephones, Charles then pressured the person he met on Grindr into the car to drive to a secluded space by the railway, the place he shot him a number of instances, together with as soon as within the head.
“Despite the accidents, the sufferer was capable of name 911 and survived,” a DOJ information launch reads.
Charles is slated to be sentenced on April 24 by Senior U.S. District Judge Paul Huck.Â