An alleged plot to rob several Baltimore, Maryland check cashing businesses involved kidnapping employees and torturing them for information, according to a federal indictment.
A federal grand jury charged four men in a 12-count indictment that mentions two victims getting burned. The indictment focuses on what three workers at check-cashing companies in Baltimore allege happened to them between May 2, 2021 and August 26, 2021.
The indictment charges four men:
- Dennis Allen Hairston
- Donte Davon Stanley
- Davonne Tramont Dorsey
- Franklin Jay Smith
They are being charged with kidnapping, robbery conspiracies, carjacking and the attempted robberies of businesses.
“The indictment alleges frightening and egregious conduct,” said Erek Barron, U.S. attorney for Maryland. “This was a conspiracy. This was planned conduct. These individuals worked together, clothed themselves in the color of law enforcement officers.”
According to the indictment, the targeted businesses were a Check Cash Depot on Patterson Avenue in Baltimore and ACE Cash Express on York Road in Cockeysville, Baltimore County.
The indictment claims the men posed as police officers by wearing police vests and badges, and they had a law enforcement-type light bar on their vehicle and brandished firearms. The men are accused of following the three workers and pulling the victims over, putting them in handcuffs and placing blindfolds or duct tape over their eyes and mouths.
“(They) tied these individuals up and used a blow torch to torture them into giving up information about the check-cashing business so that they could rob these businesses — that’s what the allegations are within the indictment,” Barron said.
In a state court charging document, one victim described his encounter with the suspects, saying: “One of them told him he likes to burn people and started to burn the (victim) with a flame. He was burned on his back and left knee with what he believed was a small torch.”
Dorsey, Smith and Stanley remain in state custody and are expected to appear in federal court on May 2. Hairston remains in federal custody in Pennsylvania on unrelated charges.
Barron said the FBI, Baltimore City police, Baltimore County police and the Harford County Sheriff’s Office are all part of the investigation.
If convicted, the men each face a maximum sentence of life in prison for the kidnapping conspiracy and for each count of kidnapping; a maximum of 20 years in federal prison for the robbery conspiracy and for each count of attempted robbery; a maximum of 25 years in federal prison for each count of carjacking; and a mandatory minimum sentence of seven years in federal prison and up to life in prison, consecutive to any other sentence imposed, for each count of using, carrying, and brandishing a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence.
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