INDIANAPOLIS — An Indianapolis man will serve time in federal prison after pleading guilty to using e-commerce apps to commit a pair of armed robberies.

In both robberies, court documents show Dujuan Lucas lured the victims to an apartment complex where his aunt lives and then robbed those victims at gunpoint.

In one of the robberies, court documents show Lucas listed a vehicle for sale under a fake name on OfferUp. When the victim, an Indianapolis mother, arrived, Lucas pointed a pistol at her head and demanded money. All this happened in front of her three children.

In another robbery, five men drove to the same apartment to buy a used phone that Lucas put up for sale on Facebook Marketplace while portraying himself as a female. When they arrived, court documents show he held a gun against one of their necks and demanded cash and phones from the group.

After the robberies, the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department reminded people about the importance of taking safety precautions while buying items online. In recent years IMPD has set up e-commerce safe zones at each of its six district headquarters buildings to give people a safe place to meet.

“I cannot express enough, we have these e-commerce zones for everyone to use.  If a person is not comfortable coming here, it’s probably not an item you should not buy,” said Cooks.

Police eventually arrested Lucas at his residence. The United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Indiana said he was out on bond awaiting trial for narcotics charges in Marion County at the time he committed the two marketplace robberies. Lucas also has prior convictions of armed robbery as a juvenile.

In this case, Lucas pleaded guilty to two robberies and brandishing a firearm in furtherance of both crimes of violence. He was sentenced to 231 months in federal prison, a little more than 19 years.

As part of the sentence, Judge Pratt ordered that Lucas be supervised by the U.S. Probation Office for three years following his release from federal prison.



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