WASHINGTON — Two men accused of kidnapping a man and keeping him bound in the back of a van for hours while they burglarized his home used a dolly and repeated trips to clear out his collection of limited-edition sneakers and collectible toys, according to new court documents filed by federal prosecutors.
Timothy Delonte Williams, 30, of Camp Springs, Maryland, and Jaevonn Archer, 30, of Capitol Heights, Maryland, were arrested this week on charges of conspiracy and kidnapping.
According to an indictment unsealed Wednesday, the two men arranged to meet on Feb .24 with their alleged victim, identified in court filings as “Y.A.,” in Northeast D.C. under the guise of purchasing a pair of limited-edition Travis Scott Nike sneakers from him. Once the meeting occurred, investigators say, Williams and Archer bound Y.A.’s hands and feet with zip ties and wrapped duct tape around his eyes. They allegedly then beat him until he told them his address in Virginia. The men then drove there and burglarized his home while a third, still-unidentified suspect, sat on Y.A. for approximately five hours as he remained bound in the back of a construction van.
On Thursday, federal prosecutors filed a detention memo asking a judge not to grant Williams and Archer bond while they await trial. The detention memo includes new details about the burglary and what Williams and Archer may have been looking for.
According to prosecutors, the victim is a sneaker reseller who sells limited-edition shoes and other items, including Bearbricks, a brand of collectible designer toys. Prosecutors say the burglary took hours because Williams and Archer thoroughly cleaned out Y.A.’s home – using a dolly and multiple cardboard boxes to steal hundreds of pairs of shoes, nearly his entire wardrobe and multiple firearms and pieces of jewelry. Prosecutors said all of the firearms were legally owned by the victim.
After hours in the back of the van, Y.A. and his vehicle were eventually driven to District Heights, where Prince George’s County Police found him still bound and blinded with duct tape.
Although Y.A.’s eyes were covered for the entire kidnapping and burglary, investigators said he was able to help identify one of the alleged kidnappers because he overheard them say they were going to use his phone to send money to themselves via CashApp. The kidnapper allegedly said they were going to send it to an alias account that wasn’t connected to their name. When investigators looked at the CashApp record, however, they found $1,000 had been sent to an account registered to Archer that featured his “real date of birth, Social Security number, and cell phone number.” Archer had also allegedly submitted a copy of his D.C. identification card to create the account.
Archer also allegedly made a phone call to an inmate at the D.C. Jail shortly after Y.A. was dumped in his vehicle appearing to brag about the crime. According to court filings, Archer told an unidentified inmate “that little s*** I was telling you about went through” and that he had some money for him.
“It looks like Christmas in this mother f***er,” Archer allegedly said. “It looks like mother f***ing [indiscernible] had a sale… this s*** is ridiculous… I got some Alexanders today, I got some mother f***ing Diors… I got a Moncler coat today.”
Prosecutors say Archer wore a Moncler coat owned by Y.A. later that same evening while dining out at a D.C. restaurant and can be seen in surveillance images wearing both the coat and an Amiri-brand hat he also wore during the kidnapping.
On Tuesday, police executed search warrants on five different residences believed to be used by Archer and Williams to store items taken from Y.A.’s home. According to prosecutors, across the five locations police recovered a significant amount of cash, multiple boxes of shoes and a number of firearms all believed to have been stolen from Y.A. Prosecutors said it appeared Archer and Williams may have sold some of the firearms during the period between the burglary and their arrest. Police found Y.A.’s Moncler coat, along with two guns, in an unused nursery in Archer’s home and various identification cards belonging to Y.A. in Williams’ home.
In the detention memo, prosecutors argued the evidence against Archer and Williams was “overwhelming” and warranted their detention.
“Even at this early stage of the case – where DNA evidence has not yet been processed, the numerous phones seized have not been searched, and Vehicles I and 2 have not yet been opened – virtually every source of evidence has pointed towards Defendants’ guilt in this matter,” prosecutors wrote.
According to the memo, both Archer and Williams have significant criminal histories involving firearms. Prosecutors said Williams had been arrested at least 11 times before, resulting in three prior felony convictions – most recently in 2019, when he was convicted of robbery and sentenced to 15 years in prison with 13.5 years suspended. Williams, according to prosecutors, had previously been arrested seven times, including prior convictions for assault and unlawful firearm possession. Williams was convicted of assault, unlawful firearm possession and motor vehicle theft in 2018 and received a sentence of 20 years in prison with all but seven years suspended. Prosecutors said Williams was released from prison in December 2022 and is still on supervised release from that case until 2027.
Archer and Williams were scheduled to appear for a detention hearing on Monday at 3 p.m. before U.S. Magistrate Judge Robin Meriweather. According to court records, Williams was being represented by attorneys Michael Lawlor and Nicholas Madiou. As of Thursday afternoon, no attorney was listed for Archer.
Prosecutors have linked sneakers to a number of recent violent crimes in D.C., including the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Antonio Cunningham last September. In that case, investigators said the suspects, who were also teenagers, had been on a day-long robbery spree targeting brand-name sneakers when they shot and killed Cunningham while stealing his Air Jordan 3s.
On Tuesday, the same day Archer was arrested, DC Police announced the arrest of a 16-year-old on armed robbery charges for allegedly pulling a gun and threatening to shoot a victim during a planned meet-up to sell a pair of sneakers. Police said the gun later turned out to be a BB gun.