Female Armed Robber Cops to More Crimes

Abigail Lee Kemp has pleaded guilty to robbing jewelry stores in Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina.

Michelle Graff michelle.graff@nationaljeweler.com

Security camera footage shows Abigail Lee Kemp committing robberies at two different jewelry stores. The 25-year-old Atlanta-area native has pleaded guilty to jewelry store robberies in three more states.

Panama City, Fla.--The lone female armed robber who victimized employees at multiple jewelry stores in 2015 and early 2016 has pleaded guilty to more charges.

Court papers show that in Florida federal court on Dec. 28, Abagail Lee Kemp entered a guilty plea to interference with commerce by robbery (also known as a Hobbs Act robbery) for jewelry store robberies in Woodstock and Dawsonville, Georgia; Bluffton, South Carolina; and Mebane, North Carolina.

She also consented to have jurisdiction for those cases transferred to U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida.

She faces up to 20 years behind bars for each count, a $250,000 fine for each and could be ordered to pay restitution for the stolen jewelry that was not recovered.

Kemp is being prosecuted in federal court and will be sentenced to serve her time in the federal prison system, which does not grant parole.

In July, the 25-year-old Kemp pleaded guilty in the same Florida federal court to conspiracy, robbery and weapons charges related to the August 2015 robbery of a jewelry store in Panama City, Fla.

Later that same month, the 25-year-old testified at trial against the three men who are said to have acted as lookouts and otherwise assisted her in the robberies.

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A jury found those men--36-year-old Lewis Jones III, with whom Kemp allegedly had a relationship, and brothers Larry Bernard Gilmore, 44, and Michael Bernard Gilmore, 47--guilty of conspiracy to commit robberies along with weapons charges.

The three reportedly trained Kemp, who grew up in the Atlanta suburbs, for the robberies at the Atlanta window tinting business that the Gilmore brothers owned, giving her pointers on handling a gun, tying people up and the best jewelry to steal.

Kemp has pleaded guilty to a total of five counts of interference with commerce by robbery, two charges of use of a firearm during a crime and one count of conspiracy to interfere with commerce by robbery.

Her sentencing is set for Jan. 13, court papers show.

The tale of the lone female armed robber first began circulating in September 2015, grabbing headlines in both the trade and consumer press because of the unusual nature of the crime.

It is not often, Jewelers Security Alliance President John J. Kennedy said at the time, to see a lone individual go into a jewelry store and commit an armed robbery, and never before had he seen a woman do it by herself.

Kemp and her accomplices initially were linked to a total of six armed robberies, the last of which took place in January 2016 at a jewelry store in Mebane, North Carolina.

She was arrested a short time later at her apartment in the Atlanta suburb of Smyrna.

Michelle Graffis the editor-in-chief at National Jeweler, directing the publication’s coverage both online and in print.