During a crazy Valentine’s Day heist of an armored truck in Hawthorne, the robber kept his face covered.

But as he bent down to stuff bills from a haul of more than $166,000 into his bags, his hoodie rode up – exposing a star tattoo on his lower back.

That tattoo became a major focus in the trial this month of Deneyvous Hobson, an accused member of a prolific LA-based armored car robbery crew known as the “Chesapeake Bandits.”

Hobson, 38, faced conspiracy, robbery and weapons charges.

Prosecutors told the jury that the star’s tattoo, captured on surveillance video during the 2022 robbery, matched one in the same location on Hobson’s lower back.

“The proof of the defendant’s guilt is his tattoo”, conf. Atty. Jason C. Pang told jurors at the start of the trial last week.

During the trial, both sides presented expert witnesses to talk about the tattoo. Alex Alonso, who worked as a professor in the Cal State university system and recently taught a course on the history of street gangs, was called by the defense.

Alonso testified that he had seen the five-pointed star used by various LA gangs, including the Trouble Gangster Crips, about eight different Hoover gangs, and two factions of the Black P-Stones.

Prosecutors called Dominic Pollio, an LAPD officer who works on the Southwest Division gang enforcement detail, as a rebuttal witness. He said he has interacted with hundreds of Black P-Stones members this year alone.

Asked if he had seen the five-pointed star on the lower back of any of the gang members, Pollio said no.

Hobson’s lawyers argued that prosecutors got the man wrong.

“Having a similar tattoo in a similar location does not make you the robber,” federal public defender Michael L. Brown said in closing arguments Tuesday. “The government thinks that just by proving to you that Hobson has a tattoo that somehow this is Cinderella, where only one person on earth can fit the size six glass slipper.”

The jury seemed to think the shoe fit, taking about 40 minutes to return with the verdict: guilty on all counts.

During the six-day trial, prosecutors presented evidence that Hobson and his half-brother — co-defendant James Russell Davis, 36 — robbed a Sectran Security Service armored truck by ambushing the truck’s driver while he was refueling an ATM on Monday morning.

Hobson and Davis sued Wescom Credit Union three weeks before the robbery, prosecutors said.

Armored truck driver Jose Guzman testified that while he was servicing the ATM on February 14, 2022, a person approached him and put a gun to his head. He said the robber told him if he tried anything, he would “blow my head off.”

“I just wanted to survive,” Guzman said, testifying that the robbers took his gun, a .40-caliber handgun.

Hobson and two co-conspirators stole about $166,640 in cash and checks, according to prosecutors.

As the robbers returned to their car, one of them fired a 9 mm handgun, according to prosecutors.

Guzman, who worked for Sectran for about 11 years, said he resigned shortly after. He now works for a cement transportation company.

“I didn’t want to take any more chances,” Guzman said. “I had a little boy at home.”

Authorities believe Hobson and Davis were part of a group behind a series of robberies targeting armored cars in the Los Angeles area. They were dubbed the “Chesapeake Bandits” because they carefully planned the attacks at a home on Chesapeake Avenue in LA’s West Adams neighborhood, investigators say.

The members would force guards to the ground at gunpoint, zip tie them and take bags of money before fleeing, according to law enforcement.

Hobson faces a maximum statutory sentence of life in federal prison. He has been in federal custody since February 2023.

Davis, who was captured by the FBI, pleaded guilty in February to robbery and gun charges. He was sentenced to almost 14 years in prison.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.