Bail was set at $50,000 for the suspect in an early Wednesday morning robbery in Chehalis during a hearing in Lewis County Superior Court Thursday.
While defense attorney Rachael Tiller asked Judge James Lawler to set bail no higher than $25,000 due to the defendant’s young age and the support he has from friends and family, Lawler granted the state prosecutor’s bail request during the preliminary hearing.
“My initial thought was (bail) was going to be higher than what the state requested, but I’ll go along with what the state asked for,” Lawler said Thursday, citing significant community safety risk as reason behind the relatively high bail decision.
The suspect, Omarion Le’Phaedric Moore, 18, of Chehalis, was arrested and booked into the Lewis County Jail at approximately 3:30 a.m. on July 26 after a K9 tracked him from the business in the 100 block of Southwest Interstate Avenue to a nearby hotel.
The robbery was reported at approximately 3:29 a.m. on July 26, according to the Chehalis Police Department.
The victim, a 44-year-old woman, reported a Black male wearing a face covering entered the business, demanded money and then fled with approximately $350 in cash, according to court documents.
The suspect “implied he had a weapon but did not display it” during the incident, according to law enforcement. No injuries were reported.
The suspect allegedly threatened to shoot the victim if she did not give him money from the register and allegedly “told her before leaving not to call the police or he would come back and shoot her,” according to an affidavit of probable cause.
A witness reportedly described the victim as “looking terrified” after the incident. Other witnesses from a nearby parking lot reported seeing the suspect run past them, according to the affidavit.
After a K9 tracked the suspect to a nearby hotel, officers obtained security footage from the hotel that showed the suspect “running towards the motel and entering a room,” according to the affidavit. Officers set up a perimeter around the room, prompting three occupants to exit, two females and a male. The male, identified as Moore, “exited the room in his underwear and spontaneously said that he had not robbed anyone,” according to the affidavit.
The two female occupants of the room told law enforcement Moore had returned to the room at approximately 3:30 a.m. and had told them “he had been robbed but was still in possession of all his belongings as well as a bunch of money he had not had before,” according to the affidavit.
Officers subsequently obtained and executed a search warrant, recovering $400 in cash and clothing matching what the suspect was wearing in the surveillance footage. A firearm was not located in the room or on Moore’s person and the two females told law enforcement Moore “was never in possession of a firearm.”
Moore was charged in Lewis County Superior Court on Thursday with one count each of second-degree robbery, felony harassment, threat to kill, and tampering with a witness. The robbery charge is a class B felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison and the other two charges are class C felonies, each punishable by up to five years in prison.
Arraignment is scheduled for Thursday, Aug. 3.
