LA man charged with robbery while wearing GPS ankle monitor

After Nhazel Warren was charged with carrying a gun in public this summer, a judge released the 19-year-old on the condition that the Los Angeles County Probation Department track his movements with a GPS device.

When Warren was arrested three weeks later on suspicion of robbing an elderly couple, a different judge released him with another GPS tracking provision.

But even as the court once again criticized Warren's ankle monitor, prosecutors allege he robbed two other people in September and October.

To determine his whereabouts, Los Angeles Police Department investigators executed a search warrant on the contractor who operates Warren's GPS monitor. The company was unable to determine where he was at the time of the robberies.

Detectives arrested Warren last week, his fifth arrest in five months, according to court records. He pleaded not guilty to charges of eluding police, resisting arrest, carrying concealed weapons in public, assault with a firearm and four counts of robbery. His lawyer declined to comment.

Warren's case raises questions about how effectively the parole board monitors defendants in custody at a time when judges are increasingly turning to GPS tracking as an alternative to prison.

In an emailed statement, probation officials said the department interviews defendants and conducts a risk assessment before equipping them with ankle monitors.

In August, the last month for which the parole board provided figures, 402 of the 1,438 people monitored by GPS absconded, the statement said.

Another 231 defendants allowed their ankle monitors to run out of batteries, meaning they may also have fled, the statement said. In addition, 142 defendants did not show up for appointments with their probation officers.

As the pendulum of public opinion has swung away from requiring cash bail, probation officials have portrayed the monitoring program as a fairer way to ensure people show up in court while keeping the public safe.

Preliminary release allows people to keep their jobs and care for their families instead of waiting in prison for trial. Probation officers, prosecutors and judges generally believe that GPS devices reduce the risk that a defendant will flee or commit a new crime.

In Los Angeles County, the Department of Probation's GPS program was developed to allow law enforcement to track defendants in real time and create a record of their whereabouts. But documents filed in Warren's case show that the parole board and its contractor, Securus, do not operate the program that way.

When investigators served a search warrant against Securus, the company did not share information from Warren's GPS monitor, records show. A Securus analyst said the data was so flawed that he would “feel uncomfortable” confirming it was accurate.

“To this end,” he wrote in a letter to the LAPD, “we cannot certify any of the data during this time period.”

A spokesman for Securus confirmed a Times inquiry but had no comment. The parole board pays Securus about $350,000 a month to operate its GPS system, parole officials said.

Warren had already been arrested twice in two months – on suspicion of leading police on a high-speed chase and illegal weapons possession – when LAPD officers stopped him at 55th Street and Denker Avenue on July 15, according to court documents. They patted him and found a gun in his underwear.

According to a motion filed by his attorney, Warren said he carried the gun because he feared his $20,000 Rolex watch would be stolen.

After pleading not guilty to possessing a concealed weapon in public, Warren was released under electronic monitoring by the parole board, court records show.

That's when probation officers attached a GPS device to his ankle for the first time.

Three weeks later, investigators arrested Warren again on suspicion of robbing an elderly couple at gunpoint. Prosecutors accuse Warren, who did not have GPS monitoring at the time, and Daelan Reed, 18, of breaking into the couple's Mid-City home on July 2.

The 85-year-old female victim, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation, told the Times she woke up at 4 a.m. to find two men wearing hoodies, masks and gloves in her bedroom.

They told the couple not to move or they would get hurt.

She watched as they emptied her jewelry box containing a diamond engagement ring and necklaces, bracelets and earrings given to her by her parents and husband.

“He even took the beads my mother gave me,” she said.

One of the robbers ordered her 80-year-old husband to get out of bed, pushed a gun into his back and demanded cash, checkbooks, credit cards and the couple's PINs, she said. The couple grabbed car keys from a kitchen drawer and drove away in the couple's BMW.

In the days that followed, the thieves withdrew as much cash as they could from the couple's bank accounts, the woman said.

“What they took away from me, aside from the tangible things, is my sense of security,” she said. “My love for my own home. I don't see strangers the same way. It changed me 180 degrees.”

After Warren's arrest, investigators searched his mother's Long Beach home. They found four handguns and seized $21,000 from a nightstand and $2,583 from Warren's pocket, his attorney Geoffrey Ojo wrote in court papers. Ojo demanded the return of the $21,000 that he said belonged to Warren's mother, a “working” medical professional who earned $136,859 in 2023.

After pleading not guilty to the robbery charge, Warren was released again after posting $150,000 bail. A judge ordered the parole board to subject Warren to a second GPS tracking program and listed “no force, violence or weapons” as conditions of his release.

Two weeks later, police say, Warren robbed a man who was returning to his Bentley SUV after shopping at Bristol Farms in Woodland Hills. According to police, Warren and another man wearing dark sweatshirts and masks threw the victim to the ground and stole his watch and phone.

A black BMW with a stolen license plate was waiting nearby, said Det. Emily Delph wrote in a search warrant affidavit. An hour later, the BMW was seen in the jewelry district of downtown Los Angeles, where the suspects were likely trying to sell the stolen watch, Delph wrote.

Investigators found a video showing the suspects entering a jewelry store. Delph recognized one of them as Warren. On Oct. 16, she applied for a search warrant to obtain GPS data from Warren's two electronic surveillance cases. The historical data would determine whether he was present at the Woodland Hills robbery, Delph wrote; Live tracking information would help the LAPD locate and arrest him.

She got neither one nor the other. In a letter, a Securus analyst said the data was so inaccurate that he wouldn't swear to its accuracy in court.

“We would never put you in the position of using our data as evidence that we would be uncomfortable testifying to its accuracy,” wrote analyst Jeff Marino.

Marino did not respond to requests for comment. He did not say in his letter why the data was inaccurate or how widespread the problem was.

Some authorities outside Los Angeles County have questioned the reliability of the contractors responsible for monitoring GPS trackers.

Prosecutors in Louisiana this year charged a Mississippi-based contractor, AEM, with involuntary manslaughter after a defendant under their watch shot his wife before taking his own life in 2021 in response, prosecutors allege.

On October 23, Warren appeared at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in downtown Los Angeles to be arraigned in the weapons possession case, for which he was given a GPS device for the first time. He pleaded not guilty and was allowed to continue with electronic monitoring.

Later that day, prosecutors allege, Warren returned to Woodland Hills. A man was talking on the phone when he noticed a black BMW duplex next to him on Ventura Boulevard around 8:30 p.m

The man, who spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear for his safety, told the Times that two people got out of the BMW. They wore masks and pointed handguns at his face, he said. When he heard them cocking their weapons, he thought they were going to kill him. He screamed, “No, no, no – stop!”

They demanded the Breitling Navitimer on his wrist. He loved the silver watch with a stratos gray dial, No. 193 of only 1,000 made. “It was the first expensive watch I bought,” he said. “I worked very, very hard.”

He handed the masked men the $10,000 watch.

Warren was arrested the next day. He and two other men were charged with both robberies in Woodland Hills. Warren pleaded not guilty Monday in a Van Nuys courtroom.

The police did not recover the Breitling. Its owner wondered if the robbers would kill anyone before being locked up.

“Are we really going to wait until that time to do something?” he asked.

A judge set Warren's bond for the robbery at $150,000.

He published it and was released, still under judicial GPS monitoring.