An El Dorado man remained jailed Thursday on bonds totaling $110,000, a day after a first appearance hearing in 35th Judicial District Court on felony charges in connection to an armed robbery that was reported earlier this week at a local convenience store.
Alexander L. Sturgis, 23, was arrested May 9 for aggravated robbery, two counts of possession of a firearm by certain persons, felony with a firearm and theft.
Officers responded at midnight May 9 to a report of a robbery at Day & Nite at 1207 W. Hillsboro.
A store clerk told officers she was preparing to close the store when a male approached the door at approximately 11:55 p.m.
Thinking the door was locked, the clerk said she motioned to the male that the store was closed.
She said the suspect then rushed through door and a second man followed him inside.
The store clerk said the suspects pointed handguns at her and the first suspect demanded cash from the safe and ordered her to place it in a black plastic bag that he was holding.
When she told him the safe was locked and could not open, the suspect then ordered her to remove money from a cash box, the woman told police.
The woman said she complied and placed a total of $86 cash in the bag — $75 from the cash register and $11 from the cash box.
She said the second suspect then ran behind the counter and stole 20 packages of Newport cigarettes from the shelves.
As the suspects ran from the business, the complainant said a third man ran up to the door and then fled the scene on foot with the other two males.
She said the suspects ran east, adding that all three wore face masks, black clothes and white shoes.
The complainant said the first male was approximately 6 feet tall with a muscular build and was wearing a black hat, black ski mask and a black hoodie with white stripes on the sleeves.
She said his voice was deep and he was soft-spoken.
The second male who entered the store was described as shorter than the first, with a thin build.
He wore a black face mask, while the third man, who did not enter the store, wore a green mask, the woman said.
Police said the incident was captured on the store’s surveillance video. They noted that the shorter suspect who entered the store was also wearing white gloves.
Officers found two unopened packages of Newport cigarettes on the ground while searching the immediate area surrounding Day & Nite.
Upon further investigation, police spotted an unoccupied car, a red or maroon Kia Forte, parked in the area of West First and Bradley.
Two handguns were visible inside the car, one in the backseat on the driver’s side and the other on the floorboard on the front passenger’s side, police said.
Officers made contact with the owner of the vehicle at her residence across town from the scene and the woman said Sturgis, her son, is the primary driver of the car.
Investigators then spoke with Sturgis and he told them that he was the last person to drive the car before officers found it in the area of West First and South Bradley.
Police said several physical features of the taller suspect in the Day & Nite convenience store were similar to the corresponding features on Sturgis.
Sturgis was taken into custody for aggravated robbery and possession of a firearm by certain persons, with a penalty enhancement for felony with a firearm.
Police later recovered the pair of handguns after obtaining a search warrant for the Kia and they learned that one of the guns, a Berna Thunder .380, had been reported stolen to the Bryant Police Department.
Consequently, Sturgis was arrested on additional charges of possession of a handgun by certain persons, theft by receiving and parole violation.
During his first appearance hearing in district court May 12, Sturgis was a issued a $100,000 bond on the charges stemming from the robbery and a $10,000 bond for the additional charges.
Investigators are working to identify the other two suspects that were described by the complainant.
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Police are also investigating an incident in which a man allegedly wielded a gun at several children who were accused of stealing bicycles that belonged to his sisters earlier this week.
At 6:46 p.m. May 10, officers were called to the area of B Avenue and Midway Street in reference to a disturbance involving adults and children.
Upon arrival, police said they saw adults and children “screaming back and forth in the street, using extreme profanity.”
A woman told officers that her daughters’ bicycles were stolen from their residence in the 500 block of East Pecan.
She said she was notified about the theft while at work and she arrived on the scene just before officers.
The girls, ages 15 and 12, told officers they heard a noise outside their East Pecan residence and they saw several juveniles, who appeared to be boys in their mid-teens, running through the yard with their bicycles.
The girls said they did not see the juveniles’ faces.
One of the juveniles reportedly wore a blue fur jacket, another wore a gray hoodie and the rest wore black clothes.
A short time later, the girls said they chased the juveniles with a baseball bat and at some point, their mother and older brother, 21, arrived on the scene and joined the chase, which ended at the intersection of B Avenue and Midway Street.
Witnesses said the girls’ brother chased two boys and a girl, ranging in age from 11 to 14, in a pickup truck.
They said he exited the truck, waved a gun “back and forth in the air,” got back into the truck and drove away.
A police report did not indicate that the bicycles were recovered. One of the bicycles was described as pink and black and the other, pink, black and white.