By Guy Leonard, County Times
HOLLYWOOD, Md. (Oct. 16, 2008)—The commander of St. Mary's County's top criminal investigative section says it appears the police have all the suspects who were involved in the PNC bank robbery case that occurred here Sept. 24.
Detectives went down to interview two of the suspects, William Cordell Johnson, 28, and Joseph Franklin Brown, 25, who had fled to Raleigh, N.C. after the alleged robbery last month and both suspects were extradited back to St. Mary’s before the weekend.
The next step for the detectives involved in the case, Lt. Rick Burris, commander of the Bureau of Criminal Investigations, said, is to compile and review all the evidence to prepare for prosecution.
Two other suspects Quinita Jesse Ennis, 30, and Edwin Jonathan Jones, 40, both of Lexington Park, are also incarcerated for their alleged role in the bank robbery as getaway driver and planner respectively.
“It looks like we’ve got everyone involved,” Burris told The County Times Monday. “As far as additional suspects, everything is pointing towards no one else being involved.”
Detectives have said from the beginning of the case that the branch manager and her two children who were kidnapped from their Lusby home as a means to retrieve money from the bank were not involved in the alleged conspiracy.
Johnson and Brown, who detectives have alleged are the ones who actually kidnapped the bank manager and her children, an 18-month-old and a 5-year-old, and committed the bank robbery have been held without bond after their arraignment in District Court.
Both have been charged with three counts of kidnapping, three counts of first-degree assault, two counts of armed robbery, theft and conspiracy to commit armed robbery.
The week the four suspects were arrested, detectives found four safes buried in Brown’s backyard, two of them filled with cash, law officers alleged.
The suspects also attempted to destroy evidence linking them to the crime and apparently went on a shopping spree, according to detectives, that included buying clothes, computers, personal electronics and airplane tickets to Las Vegas.
Of the $168,000 stolen, police have said, $58,000 was spent by the suspects in just about a week, some of it included gambling in Atlantic City, N.J.
About $110,000 of the stolen money was recovered, police have said.
According to police, Brown and Johnson had gone to North Carolina with the purpose of setting up a residence there with some of the money they allegedly stole. They were preparing to return to St. Mary’s to retrieve the rest of the money, police said, when they learned that police began an intensive warrant search operation looking for them.
Both suspects stayed in Raleigh and were arrested by law officers there on fugitive warrants.
Police working on the case have said much of the merchandise the suspects bought with the stolen money had been recovered.
Brown and Johnson have been scheduled to appear in District Court Nov. 11.
RELATED INFORMATION:
Two PNC Bank Robbers Returned From Raleigh, Oct. 9, 2008
http://somd.com/news/headlines/2008/8484.shtml