Chattanooga, TN– A man pleaded guilty Wednesday in Chattanooga’s federal court to a 2021 jewelry store robbery in Hamilton Place mall.
Joshua Lishun Brewer, 29, is expected to serve a 57-month prison sentence for obstructing, delaying and affecting interstate commerce by committing a robbery at Markman’s Diamonds.
“It’s a big decision not only in your life but in the life of the case,” Magistrate Judge Mike Dumitru said from the bench.
The details of the robbery were not discussed in court, but Brewer’s plea agreement detailed the Dec. 17, 2021, incident.
Brewer went inside Markman’s Diamonds with two unknown accomplices and started to yell at those inside to get down, the plea said.
A store employee told authorities she hid underneath a desk and watched as her colleagues were zip-tied at gun point, the plea said.
The woman allegedly told Chattanooga police officers the robbers took her wallet, cell phone and an assortment of jewelry from the store.
When police recovered her phone, it was found to have Brewer’s thumbprint on it, according to the plea.
Markman’s has been the target of repeated burglaries over the decades — one in 1986, 2012 and 2016, according to Chattanooga Times Free Press archives.
Dumitru said he had only met Brewer twice in the worst possible circumstances a person could meet somebody.
Brewer is a young man, who still has time to turn his life around after he serves his sentence, Dumitru said. He wished Brewer luck and said to think of loved ones and the future.
“I hope that your life ends up exactly the way you want it to,” Dumitru said to Brewer.
He is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 9.
Brewer is also facing over a dozen state-level charges including aggravated kidnapping, aggravated assault, aggravated robbery, theft over $10,000 and false imprisonment, according to the Hamilton County Criminal Court clerk’s office.
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