Man jailed after attacking ‘easy target’ Asian woman.

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SAN LEANDRO, California. – An East Bay man has been sentenced to prison after an Asian woman was robbed “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 Thursday to two years in federal prison. His co-defendant, Sene Malepeai, 27, pleaded guilty to the same charges and has yet to be sentenced, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Northern California said Friday.

In a plea agreement, Malepeai said she and three others 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, they said the prosecutors.

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 deal.

The robbery occurred in the Costco parking lot as the victim left the store and was walking to her vehicle. A black Honda drove alongside, and a person reached in and grabbed her purse from the moving car, prosecutors said.

The woman held on to her purse and was dragged across the width of several cars. As the car sped away, the woman fell to the ground and was injured. Surveillance cameras revealed the car had a license plate registered to Davis, prosecutors said.

After the robbery, the occupants of the vehicle shared the stolen property, including cash, credit cards, a checkbook and two cellphones, prosecutors said Malepeai admitted.

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

In addition to the prison sentence, Davis was ordered to pay restitution in an amount to be determined and serve three years of supervised release after leaving prison, prosecutors said.