Bail has been set at $250,000 for the man accused of robbing a Chehalis business while carrying an “AR-style BB gun” early Wednesday morning.
Samuel Ponce Ruiz, 36, of Centralia, was arrested and booked into the Lewis County Jail at 7:53 p.m. on Oct. 10, according to jail records and the Chehalis Police Department.
He was charged Friday, Oct. 11, in Lewis County Superior Court with one count each of first-degree robbery and first-degree burglary.
Each charge is a class A felony punishable by up to life in prison.
“I find that there’s a need to protect the community,” Judge J. Andrew Toynbee said of his bail decision during a preliminary hearing on Friday, Oct. 11.
The robbery was reported in the 100 block of Southwest Interstate Avenue at approximately 4:27 a.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 9, according to the Chehalis Police Department.
A 30-year-old male clerk at the business reported seeing a dark gray sedan parked outside the business for about five minutes before a male suspect, who has since been identified as Ponce, exited the vehicle and entered the store.
Ponce was allegedly wearing a face covering, glasses, a high-visibility construction-type vest and had “what appeared to be an AR-15-style rifle tucked under his right arm,” according to charging documents filed in Lewis County Superior Court at the time.
The clerk “stated the male demanded money, so he pulled out the cash drawer from the register, and the male took approximately $200,” according to court documents.
Ponce then allegedly demanded that the clerk open the safe, and, after learning the clerk didn’t have the ability to open the safe, he allegedly told the clerk to stay in a back storage room, saying “he knows where he works,” according to court documents.
The clerk told responding officers that he stayed in the storage room for a few minutes before exiting and calling 911.
The clerk was not injured, according to the Chehalis Police Department.
Using surveillance video from the store and a hotel across the street, investigators determined the suspect vehicle had sat across the street from a local gas station for about 45 minutes before committing the robbery.
Chehalis Police Department officers were able to get a partial license plate for the suspect’s vehicle, according to a news release the department issued on Friday. The data was uploaded to the Flock Safety camera system, which captures and shares license plate and vehicle information in a database available to participating law enforcement agencies.
“This information was provided to local law enforcement and tips came from both the Napavine and Centralia police departments which allowed the suspect vehicle to be identified,” the Chehalis Police Department said in a news release.
Chehalis officers, with assistance from the Joint Narcotics Enforcement Team and the Centralia Police Department, located and arrested Ponce on Thursday.
The execution of several search warrants yielded an AR-style BB gun, clothing, possible meth and “other evidentiary items” related to the robbery, according to the Chehalis Police Department.
“The suspect was questioned at the scene and declined to make a statement,” the Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office states in charging documents.
Ponce’s arraignment hearing is scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 17.
The Chehalis Police Department asks anyone with information about this incident to call Detective Sergeant Ayers at 360-748-8605 or dispatch at 360-740-1105.
