A Connecticut couple who authorities say was part of a group that plundered nearly $1 million in goods from Lululemon stores across the U.S. was sentenced to probation Friday in Ramsey County District Court for stealing from several of the retailer’s Twin Cities locations in 2024.
Jadion Anthony Richards, 45, and Akwele Nickeisha Lawes-Richards, 46, appeared by Zoom and in separate hearings and received 15-month stayed prison terms and three years of probation — sentences that fall within state guidelines — after they pleaded guilty to felony organized retail theft.
Akwele Nickeisha Lawes-Richards, left, and Jadion Anthony Richards (Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)
Lululemon is asking the couple pays just over $8,000 in restitution between them, but the couple is contesting the amount and a hearing will be held to determine what they owe.
The charges, filed against the couple in November 2024, were the first filed in Ramsey County under a state law that took effect in 2023 to address organized retail theft. The cases also mark the county’s first convictions.
Richards and Lawes-Richards’ guilty pleas came a year after they stole just shy of $5,000 worth of goods from the high-end women’s athletic wear retailer’s Rosedale mall store in Roseville. They were arrested the next day after a Lululemon organized retail crime investigator notified police they were in the Woodbury store.
The pleas fell under a “global resolution” agreement that covered charges in Ramsey and Hennepin counties for thefts at Lululemon stores in Edina, Minneapolis, Minnetonka and Roseville. Other charges were dismissed under the plea deal: a second count of organized retail theft in Ramsey County, and two counts of felony theft stemming from cases in Hennepin County.
Theft scheme explained
According to the criminal complaints, Richards had a JW Marriot key card on him when he was arrested on Nov. 14, 2024. Police recovered more than $50,000 in stolen Lululemon goods in his room at the hotel’s Mall of America location in Bloomington.
The Lululemon investigator told Roseville police the couple was alleged to have stolen over $30,000 from local stores between September 2024 and November 2024, and that their group was responsible for almost $1 million in thefts across the country. They allegedly pulled off thefts in Colorado and Utah before arriving in the Twin Cities.
The group usually traveled to an area and hit up Lululemon stores over two days, the complaints say. They then went back to the East Coast, where they made “unverified exchanges” at stores — meaning with no receipts — for other goods, which were later returned to credit cards. After a week or so, the group then headed out again to commit more thefts.
The Lululemon investigator told police that Richards used at least six credit cards to process nearly a half-million in fraudulent returns, the complaints say.
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