OAKLAND — Two men were charged with robbing a man at a local motel, in a case where the prostitute the victim had hired may not have been honest about her true intentions.
Trevell Moore, 19, and Taza Thomas Jr., 20, were charged with second degree robbery for allegedly beating a man and stealing $2,000 from him. The robbery occurred on Feb. 21, and police said they’re attempting to identify other suspects, including a sex worker who was with the victim just before the robbery.
Thomas is also charged with leading police on a chase and committing a hit and run on April 1, when officers attempted to arrest him on the robbery charge. He was booked into jail on April 3 and is being held in lieu of $185,000 bail, records show. Moore was arrested in Stockton on April 9 but doesn’t show up on the Alameda County jail’s roster.
Police said that the victim hired a sex worker and paid the woman inside his room at the Holiday Motel on MacArthur Boulevard in Oakland. At some point during their interactions, the woman excused herself to make a private phone call in the bathroom.
When she emerged, she became spontaneously irate and yelled at the man to leave. When he obeyed her and exited the room, several robbers were waiting, authorities said. They reportedly assaulted him and took $2,000 in cash.
The man reported the incident to police but left out the part where he hired a prostitute, authorities said. Later, after detectives reviewed surveillance footage from the motel and conducted a follow-up interview, he provided additional details.
In July 2024, there was a similar incident at the same motel that resulted in charges for five people. In that case, a man told police that a sex worker had set him up to be attacked by a group who forced entry into his room with a crowbar and shot him
In that instance, the woman claimed that the victim, a 20-year-old man, had attempted to become her pimp, by force, and that she’d called her friends for backup, court records show. When police interviewed the man, he claimed he sometimes gave “free rides” for sex workers and that the woman tricked him and stole a gun he kept for protection.
