Montez Moore, a 32-year-old Philadelphia resident, has been sentenced to 32 years in federal prison for a series of armed robberies, kidnappings, and carjackings that targeted more than a dozen victims across the city between 2021 and 2023. In addition to his prison term, Moore will serve five years of supervised release and must pay over $200,000 in restitution to his victims. The sentence was handed down by United States District Court Judge Gail A. Weilheimer.
Moore faced charges from three separate indictments issued in October 2023, December 2023, and March 2025. According to court documents, Moore used deception to lure victims—often through fake Facebook Marketplace accounts where he posed as a buyer or seller of high-end merchandise such as watches and jewelry. When victims arrived at prearranged meeting spots under the impression they were conducting legitimate business transactions, Moore would rob them at gunpoint.
In one incident detailed in the indictments, Moore robbed a jeweler on Rising Sun Avenue after pretending to purchase an expensive watch. In another case from December 2022, he and several accomplices robbed a cellphone store on Castor Avenue at gunpoint and stole a firearm from the store manager. Later that month, Moore conspired with others to rob a check cashing business on Castor Avenue; this robbery escalated into kidnapping and carjacking the business owner.
Moore’s criminal activity also included robbing two additional cellphone stores—one on South Broad Street in December 2021 (where an employee was kidnapped and carjacked prior to the robbery) and another on Castor Avenue in November 2022. Between December 2022 and February 2023, authorities say Moore committed seven more armed robberies and one burglary.
He was arrested in May 2023 at his Henry Avenue apartment while still in possession of the stolen firearm from one of his earlier crimes.
In November 2025, Moore pleaded guilty to interference with interstate commerce by robbery, kidnapping, carjacking, and using or brandishing a firearm during violent crimes. All charges were consolidated for sentencing.
United States Attorney David Metcalf commented: “The facts of Moore’s three cases revealed one constant, overarching theme— Moore was a conman who robbed innocent victims after deploying trickery or ambush. He selected his victims either by using the internet or stalking businesses that he thought would be easy to rob.” Metcalf continued: “In some instances, Moore created a phony Facebook Marketplace account and purported to be a man from Delaware who moonlighted as a high-end jewelry salesman and sold goods on the secondary market. Moore then solicited transactions from individuals who offered to sell him watches, jewelry, and handbags, and arranged to meet his victims under the guise of engaging them in legitimate financial transactions. But when the victims arrived at the agreed upon location to conduct business, Moore stuck a gun in their faces and stole their property.”
Metcalf further described how “on one another occasion,” referring to New Year’s Eve in 2021: “Moore selected a cellphone store on South Broad Street as a business to rob. He recruited two accomplices to follow an employee of the store home… When the victim arrived at the parking lot of his apartment complex, Moore’s accomplices forced the victim into his own car at gunpoint and drove him back to the store where Moore met them and used the victim’s keys to access the store and steal cellphones, tablets, and videogame consoles worth tens of thousands of dollars.”
Authorities say fourteen people were directly harmed by these crimes.
Metcalf emphasized: “He decided to use a gun to exert power over victims who had what he wanted: cash, cellphones, watches, jewelry, handbags, and electronics. The seriousness of the offenses cannot be overstated… The citizens of this district and country expect that violent crimes committed against innocent hardworking people are treated seriously… The lengthy sentence Moore received accounts for the public’s basic expectations…”
The investigation was led by FBI Philadelphia Division alongside Philadelphia Police Department. Assistant United States Attorney Justin Ashenfelter prosecuted the case.
