OAKLAND — An East Bay man and woman have recently reached plea agreements with prosecutors on federal charges involving a robbery crew that reportedly targeted Asian-Americans.
Freddie Lee Davis III, 27, recently pleaded guilty to identity theft and wire fraud charges, and his co-defendant and significant other, Oakley resident Sene Malepeai, is set to enter a guilty plea on at least one federal charge on Sept. 12, records show. Details of both agreements have not been made public.
Davis has remained in jail in part because prosecutors have alleged he’s ignored court orders and his alleged defiance went so far that he tried to marry Malepeai while jailed, in order to stay in contact with her.
Davis and Malepeai were charged last year when prosecutors identified them as a couple who used credit cards from the victim of a 2021 strong-armed robbery in San Leandro. When she was arrested, Malepeai allegedly told police that Davis and two other people had recently made plans to go to Chinatown in Oakland and rob Asian-American women, who they viewed as “easy targets,” more likely to have cash on hand and less likely to fight back, according to the criminal complaint.
The victim — an “Asian woman,” according to the complaint — had been robbed outside of a Costco in San Leandro when two assailants grabbed her purse with $1,800 in cash, knocked her to the ground and rushed to a vehicle. The woman suffered minor injuries. Malepeai allegedly identified Davis as the driver during the robbery and placed herself there as well. The two were identified by surveillance cameras after attempting to use her credit card, the complaint says.
Malepeai and Davis were charged in June 2023, and initially both were released from jail. But Davis was detained on Aug. 31 of that year, for allegedly violating a court order by contacting his girlfriend and co-defendant. He has been in jail ever since, despite repeated attempts by the defense to free him.
Every time the defense requested Davis’ release, prosecutors opposed it, alleging that he’d demonstrated his disdain for court orders by using other jail inmates’ codes and a “burner” phone to repeatedly contact Malepeai. Prosecutors said Davis has a history of domestic violence, including a false imprisonment conviction from an incident in Pittsburg where Malepeai was the victim.
Last October, prosecutors upped the ante, accusing Davis of not just wire fraud and identity theft but of arranging to violate the sanctity of marriage by using a jailhouse wedding as a means of being able to contact Malepeai without a judge interfering.
Prosecutors wrote that Davis’ “mindset in seeking a marriage may have been revealed by what he did not say in a September 21 call with his mother and grandmother,” in which his mother asked him if he wanted to be with Malepeai.
“Oh my God I’m not saying nothing over the phone…. Because about being married, you know about being married –” Davis said, before his grandmother interrupted him and directed the conversation elsewhere, prosecutors wrote in court papers.
Davis’ attorney has said there was nothing nefarious about their marriage plans, and that it actually shows Davis’ intent was to maintain a relationship with his longtime partner and mother of his children, rather than to interfere with the pending criminal case. Their jailhouse calls are “exactly the kind of calls one would expect from two people who love each other, are in a relationship,” Davis’ lawyer wrote in legal filings.
Davis is set to be sentenced on Oct. 24. He remains jailed without bail.