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The Top 5 Stories of 2025Articles about crime, engagement rings, and a necklace worn in the World Series generated the most interest among readers.
CrimeJul 13, 2016
Female Jewelry Store Robber Pleads Guilty
Abigail Kemp, who was accused of robbing a string of jewelry stores in the Southeast, pleaded guilty to four charges in a Florida federal court Monday.
Security camera footage shows Abigail Lee Kemp in a couple different jewelry stores. The 25-year-old pleaded guilty on Monday in federal court in Florida.
Tallahassee, Fla.--Abigail Kemp, who was accused of robbing a string of jewelry stores in the Southeast, pleaded guilty Monday.
According to court records, she pleaded guilty to four charges--one charge of conspiracy to interfere with commerce by robbery, one charge of interference with commerce by robbery and two charges of use/brandishing of a firearm during a crime of violence.
The first and second both carry a maximum of 20 years in prison, while the remaining two carry a consecutive term of imprisonment of at least seven years and up to life on the first conviction, and a consecutive term of imprisonment of at least 25 years and up to life on the second conviction.
She is scheduled for sentencing on Oct. 12.
Her plea precedes the trial of her alleged accomplices, 35-year-old Lewis Jones III and brothers Larry Bernard Gilmore, 43, and Michael Bernard Gilmore, 46. Their trial is scheduled to take place July 18 in federal court in Panama City, Fla.
According to the FBI, the three men are accused of finding, recruiting and training Kemp as well as assisting her on the violent jewelry store robberies in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Tennessee carried out between April 2015 and January 2016.
All three are charged with conspiracy to interfere with commerce by threats or violence.
Kemp and Jones were arrested together in Smyrna, Ga., a suburb of Atlanta, on Jan. 8, about four months after the case of the armed female robber first made headlines. The Gilmore brothers were arrested shortly thereafter.
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