A New York City cab driver has been found guilty of stealing pop singer John Legend’s designer luggage. The pricey luggage, which contained Legend’s prized $30,000 Cartier cufflinks, was stolen from New York’s JFK Airport in March, 2017.
Augustin Hilario initially denied the theft, but he was caught red-handed on surveillance video lifting the award-winning singer’s Louis Vuitton bag from an unattended luggage cart.
The 64-year-old cabbie claimed that he took the $3,000 bag accidentally, but surveillance footage showed him wheeling the cart to a more secluded area before grabbing the bag and fleeing.
Following his arrest, Hilario told police: “I know I should not have taken it. I made a mistake. There could have been a bomb in there.”
During the trial earlier this month, Legend testified that the bag contained diamond-studded cufflinks, which were in the shape of a panther — his high school mascot. The cufflinks held sentimental value to Legend because they were an anniversary gift from his model wife Chrissy Teigen.
“It was a very special gift that my wife spent a lot of time looking for and was proud to give them to me,” he had said during his testimony. “It meant a lot to her, and it meant a lot to me that she went through that to gift them to me.”
The bag also contained $500 of clothing and a pair of sunglasses worth $500 — all of which were later returned to Legend.
via WENN.com — After a week-long trial, which saw Legend testify against him, Hilario was found guilty of criminal possession of stolen property and now faces up to seven years in prison when he’s sentenced on March 12. The jury came to their decision after “weighing all the evidence and hearing the testimony of the victim, John Legend”, Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown said.
