Men robbed Tacoma-area massage parlors, held employees at gunpoint. Now 2 are sentenced
Two men who pleaded guilty to robbing Tacoma-area massage businesses at gunpoint last year have been sentenced to prison.
Izayah Amisone Fua, 22, was sentenced Monday to 14 years in prison for the Aug. 18, 2023 armed robberies on Pacific Avenue. His codefendant, Brandon Matthew Michael Reading, 23, was sentenced July 2 to seven years.
When the defendants were charged in Pierce County Superior Court, the Tacoma Police Department said in a statement on social media that the crimes were takeover-style robberies.
In the first, at a massage parlor in the 600 block of Pacific Avenue, the men allegedly walked into the business and asked for a massage, then asked for a short tour. In a hallway, surveillance video showed Fua and Reading holding employees at gunpoint and in chokeholds while dragging them around a back room where the men searched for property to steal.
One employee was pistol-whipped, and another was dragged across the floor by her hair. Charging documents state Fua and Reading fled the business with about $1,200.
About 20 minutes later, Fua and Reading were robbing another massage business about four miles south on Pacific Avenue in Parkland.
An employee later told Sheriff’s Department deputies she was giving a massage when a man came into the room, pointed a handgun at her and said, “Where is the money?” She reported that a second man who was going through rooms took her car keys from a table, and the two fled in a Toyota RAV4, which had her wallet in it.
The defendants were located and arrested about three weeks later. They were each charged with two counts of first-degree robbery, second-degree assault, unlawful imprisonment and theft of a motor vehicle. Fua was additionally charged with first-degree unlawful possession of a firearm.
Fua pleaded guilty Nov. 7 to two counts of first-degree robbery, unlawful possession of a firearm and theft of a motor vehicle. About the amended charges, deputy prosecuting attorney Benjamin Nelson wrote in court filings that the assault and unlawful imprisonment charges would either merge into the greater charge of first-degree robbery at sentencing, or they would be vacated on grounds of double jeopardy because they represented the same criminal conduct.
Fua’s defense attorney did not respond to a request for comment Thursday. According to court records, Fua had no prior criminal convictions.
Reading pleaded guilty in July to first- and second-degree robbery. Prosecutors wrote in court filings that there would have been evidence issues proving the second robbery at trial. Reading had two prior misdemeanor convictions in Pierce County.
