Indio man who posed as Xbox seller for armed robbery pleads guilty, sentenced to probation
A 19-year-old man pleaded guilty today to robbing a person who had responded to an advertisement of an Xbox gaming console for sale and was immediately sentenced to three years of probation.
Brian Lee Craig of Indio pleaded guilty Thursday at the Larson Justice Center in Indio to one felony count each of robbery, possessing a controlled substance for sale and armed criminal action, according to court records. He additionally admitted to a sentence-enhancing allegation of being armed with a firearm.
He was immediately sentenced to formal probation until June 28, 2026, according to court records. Additional charges of possessing a controlled substance for sale and possession of an assault weapon were dismissed as a result of his plea.
Sheriff's deputies met with an unidentified person at 7:52 p.m. Dec. 29, 2022, who was robbed at gunpoint, according to Sgt. Travis Mountz from the Riverside County Sheriff's Department. He said Craig and two other unidentified suspects met the victim at an unspecified location in Indian Wells to sell the gaming console.
Mountz said that when the driver of the vehicle carrying the suspects received the money from the victim, who had apparently gotten into the vehicle, a suspect in a rear passenger seat loaded a short-barrel rifle.
"The suspect then pointed the gun at the victim and told him to get out of the vehicle before he shot him in the head,'' Mountz said. "The victim complied and exited the vehicle."
After the suspects fled the scene, deputies found the suspect vehicle at a gas station near the 8400 block of Indio Boulevard, according to Mountz. Craig was the only occupant of the vehicle.
Deputies from the department's Special Enforcement Team served a search warrant and found an illegal short-barrel rifle and narcotics packaged for sale, Mountz said.
