One of the three men involved in the 2018 robbery of Safaree Samuels has been found guilty of first-degree robbery and is facing up to 50 years in prison when he is sentenced on Jan. 28.
According to NJ.com, Tacuma Ashman was one of the suspects involved in robbing Safaree, scanning the entertainer’s social media page in order to discover which pieces of jewelry he wears most frequently. From there, Ashman and his accomplice robbed Safaree of $180,000 worth of jewelry at gunpoint from his Fort Lee, NJ home. Following the robbery, the men went on a high-speed car chase with police across the George Washington Bridge and into NYC.
Safaree opened up about the robbery while talking to Angie Martinez in 2018.
“I just got robbed at gunpoint,” he said. “A couple of hours ago, I just got robbed. Two dudes with guns just ran up on me, me face down on the floor with a gun to my head. They just took everything.”
Ashman was also convicted on charges of resisting arrest and weapons possession.
Ashman and the others were accused of placing a GPS tracking device under Safaree’s car in an effort to know his location. However, the mastermind behind the plot appears to be Shawn Harewood, who was a friend of Safaree. Harewood reportedly recruited Ashman and the other accomplice, Carl Harry, to carry out the robbery because he knew that the entertainer would recognize him if he did it himself.
In April 2018, Harry and Ashman trailed Safaree as he entered his luxury apartment complex, snatched the jewelry from him, and then made off in their escape car, a black Cadillac Escalade. Once police were on their tail, they eventually ended up crashing into a divider on the highway and were later apprehended. Harry previously agreed to a plea deal in the case and was sentenced to 364 days and five years of probation.
Harewood’s court date was pushed back due to his lawyer having to leave the case for personal reasons.
