MARTINEZ — A Contra Costa County jury has found an Oakland man guilty for a string of high-value watch robberies, authorities said.
The jury convicted 27-year-old Shane Downs on four counts of armed robbery for high-value watches, as well as a charge of being a convicted felon possessing a gun, according to a statement from Contra Costa County District Attorney’s spokesperson Ted Asregadoo.
The robberies happened in 2021.
Asregadoo said that each count of the robbery charges alleged that Downs followed his victims from a public place to their homes and robbed them at gunpoint while wearing a mask over his face and head.
The watches stolen ranged in value from $3,500 to $15,000.
Asregadoo said the jury acquitted Downs on a July 2020 charge stemming from a robbery in Orinda.
According to Asregadoo, the jury agreed that Downs robbed two of his victims on April 18, 2021, following a woman from Walnut Creek to a home in Oakley and another from Walnut Creek to Concord. The jury concluded that in the first robbery, Downs brandished a gun and pointed it at the woman and that in the second, he pointed the gun and hit the victim in the head with it, Asregadoo said.
Downs took a Rolex in the first robbery that day and a Panerai Luminor watch in the second, Asregadoo said.
The other robberies happened on May 24, 2021, and May 30, 2021, respectively. Asregadoo said that the jury concluded Downs followed a person from Walnut Creek to Danville in the first one and from a Walnut Creek store to a Walnut Creek home in the second.
Downs is scheduled to be sentenced for his crimes on Nov. 15.
