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Former Cal Poly football player sentenced to five years in prison

July 12, 2016
Cameron Akins

Cameron Akins

A former Cal Poly football player was sentenced to five years and two months in prison for trying to rob a San Luis Obispo fraternity house at gunpoint. The former wide receiver faced a minimum sentence of 4.5 years and a maximum of 16 years.

Cameron Marcel Akins, 20, was the point man in the Aug. 2014 robbery attempt that led to the arrest and conviction of five Cal Poly football players. Akins carried a .38-caliber Derringer-style pistol into the Delta Sigma Phi fraternity house, pointed it at frat members and demanded cash and drugs. Akins then fought and bit an officer prior to being arrested.

The sentence Akins received took into account his youthfulness, lack of criminal history and his lead role in the case, a district attorney’s office press release states. District Attorney Dan Dow released a statement saying the sentence sends a message to the community.

“While it is sad for a young adult who otherwise had a very promising future to be sentenced to state prison, the criminal conduct in this case was very serious and must be handled accordingly,” Dow said. “The prison sentence sends a strong message to all in our community, including young adults, that choices to get involved in crime have life changing consequences.”

In May, Akins pleaded no contest to charges of attempted robbery with the use of a firearm, residential burglary and resisting a peace officer by use of force. Akins was the last of the five defendants to be sentenced.

The other former Cal Poly players, Cortland Fort; Jake Brito; Dominique Love; and Kristaan Ivory, pleaded no contest to conspiracy charges. Only Love received jail time. Love was sentenced to a year in jail.

At the time of the break-in, Akins was slotted to be a starting receiver for Cal Poly. Ivory was the star of the team. None of the five players returned to the Cal Poly squad.

A month after the robbery attempt, police arrested the former president of Delta Sigma Phi for selling marijuana out of the frat house. The former fraternity president pleaded no contest last year to possession of marijuana for sale. A few months after that, Cal Poly officials cut ties with Delta Sigma Phi following a university investigation that found fraternity members had knowledge of drug sales taking place at the frat house.


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Folks,


As they say, ‘Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time”.


This perp deserves all the time he got, using a gun in the commission of a crime elevates the seriousness and obviously the sentence.


We can argue over the meaning of justice, but, if we all cannot denounce this behavior then we are entering a new phase for our notions of jurisprudence.


ALL lives matter.


Just saying,


The Truth


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“A month after the robbery attempt, police arrested the former president of Delta Sigma Phi for selling marijuana out of the frat house. ”


While I understand the article is about the Cal Poly player, I find it amazing that the former president wasnt named. I also find it amazing that the charges for having prescription meds (Xanax or similar) for sale were dropped. He was running his drug dealing business in the frat using a credit card machine (smart card) for people to purchase their drugs. The drugs were showing up on credit card statements as “school materials”. $$4700.00 was seized when they rated that frat house. This was obviously a LOT bigger deal than they made it up to be. Why?


I agree the football player should be punished for his actions – but that drug dealing kid should have also been given an appropriate punishment. Sixty days in county jail for selling marijuana? But the harder drug charges and criminal enterprise charges dropped?


So Im not talking about a crime in a different city or state. These are the same prosecutors. Double standard.


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*raided. sorry.


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I have to totally disagree with you. The message is strong and clear. Commit a crime with a gun and you ARE going to jail. If this message was known to the criminals who commit crimes with guns the dumb idiots might even consider the ramifications of going to jail to for sure if they did have a gun in their possession.


You say he made a colossal error in judgement, true. This could have easily escalated into something far worse than what actually occurred. But thanks to Mr. Dow we do not have to worry about this guy making another colossal error that could escalate into something worse.


You say we have a youth who grew up in a different culture and could have been redirected. I don’t know where he resided before, but here he is in the “nicest” place to live and evidently he didn’t take advantage of the opportunity to change his culture and redirect his life.


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Well, you say, “If this message was known to the criminals who commit crimes with guns the dumb idiots might even consider the ramifications of going to jail to for sure if they did have a gun in their possession”


The problem is that the message is not getting through for a variety of reasons. And even if criminals from out of town learn SLO is tough on gun crime (which it’s really not…more selective,) then teens and young men aren’t going to be factoring that into their stupid choices.


So if we take the ‘message’ out of the mix, then the sentencing would have to be for 1. punishment and 2. rehabilitation.


Obviously, rehabilitation in prison doesn’t work well. This kid doesn’t need his high school diploma or to learn English (which is what many CA prisons focus upon for rehab). Nor does he need mechanic skills.


The kind of rehabilitation this kid needed should have been delivered in the form of him making up for his mistake. Lots of volunteer work in the field of addiction. Lots of scrubbing the streets, etc.


PUNISHMENT? It costs CA about 50k to incarcerate a prisoner for a year. So that’s 250 thousand to punish him and harden him in the process. Harden him to the extent that he will become a BLM fanatic.


In this case where there was no injury, a college student with a future, and a LACK of CRIMINAL RECORD, there were better options for US…for US as taxpayers.


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The message Dow’s sentencing sends: don’t commit a crime in a primarily white community if you’re not white.


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Good joke jimmy boy.


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and the race baiters come out of the woodwork right on que.


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See my post above. Is it race baiting really? When, in the same county, city, same prosecutors give a drug dealer 60 days in county jail for selling marijuana & prescription drugs on a point of sale device? Where media fails to mention his name in any articles, protecting his reputation?

I dont know why no one sees this double standard. Yes, guns bad but drugs bad too. Somehow McMillan’s crime was swept under the rug. Why?


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Who says “justice” isn’t race-based. Dow’s a hypocrite: “While it is sad for a young adult who otherwise had a very promising future to be sentenced to state prison,” blah blah blah. Ok, for a black kid, 5 years in jail is just fine but for the rich white brat who MURDERED someone with daddy’s BMW on Price Canyon Road, prison just wouldn’t be right, so he got 3 years probation! Prison for a dopey attempted robbery, probation for murder by stoner in a car. Can you all not understand how black people feel about being treated so differently?


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Given he had no criminal history, 3 years probation (like the kid with the silver spoon who KILLED the woman on Price Canyon Road 4-5 years ago) would have been sufficient. I think his sentencing was way too harsh. That kid who murdered with Dad’s car deserved 5 years in prison – not this kid. Oh and the rich kid on probation for committing a murder? He was allowed to travel all through Europe too – while on probation… Such a double standard it’s sickening.


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I despise the group BLM. I despise Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. Now that I’ve said that.


I think this sentencing is WRONG.


First, Dow is either lying or is grossly incompetent if he thinks this is going to send a message to would-be offenders. Obviously he doesn’t understand crime and offenders if he thinks this. Not to mention a lack of understanding of brain development. Your frontal lobe does not fully develop until mid-twenties.


Second, this kid made a colossal error in judgement, but hmmmm, he didn’t molest a little girl now did he. Or rape a teen friend of his daughter. hmmmmm Or he didn’t play with his phone and kill innocent cyclists.


Third, Creatively designed probation could have corrected his path and led him into a positive productive tax-paying citizen.


Oh yeah, just get all mad, but here we have a youth who grew up in a different culture and could have been redirected by the courts. But no…. the easy way out. Throw him in prison for 5 years.


Key Point to my opinion is his LACK of CRIMINAL HISTORY.


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Looks like he received more than a football.


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