Man sentenced to prison after attacking an “easy target” Asian woman

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SAN LEANDRO, California. – An East Bay man was sentenced to prison after an Asian woman was assaulted “because Asians are easy targets who don’t fight back,” according to federal prosecutors.

Freddie Lee Davis III, 27, pleaded guilty to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft and was sentenced to two years in federal prison Thursday. His co-defendant, Sene Malepeai, 27, pleaded guilty to the same charges and has not yet been sentenced, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Northern California said Friday.

In a plea agreement, Malepeai said she and three other people discussed “going to Chinatown to rob Asian women with purses or jewelry” on June 17, 2021, and ended up at a Costco in San Leandro, prosecutors said.

Two members of the group said they “preferred to rob Asians because they thought they had more money and because Asians are easy targets who don’t fight back,” prosecutors said, citing Malepeai’s plea agreement.

The robbery took place in the Costco parking lot as the victim was leaving the store and walking to his vehicle. A black Honda passed by and a person reached out and grabbed her purse from the moving car, prosecutors said.

The woman grabbed her purse and was dragged across several cars. As the car drove away, the woman fell to the ground and was injured. Surveillance cameras revealed that the car had a license plate registered to Davis, prosecutors said.

After the robbery, the occupants of the vehicle divided the stolen goods, including cash, credit cards, a checkbook and two cell phones, prosecutor Malepeai admitted.

Davis pleaded guilty Aug. 1 to obtaining the woman’s stolen MasterCard credit card. He and Malepeai used it to buy merchandise at a shoe store in San Leandro and make other fraudulent purchases, prosecutors said.

In addition to being sentenced to prison, Davis was ordered to pay restitution in an amount to be determined and serve three years of supervised release after being released from prison, prosecutors said.