A 42-year-old man has been charged with robbing a man who was homeless outside a Lacey Home Depot on July 4.
Pierce County deputies located the man Wednesday and transferred him to a Lacey officer who booked him into Thurston County jail, according to court documents.
The arrest followed a days-long investigation into the incident that reportedly involved misleading license plates, a hammer and narcotics, court documents show.
On Wednesday, the man attended his preliminary appearance in Thurston County Superior Court. Prosecutors charged him the next day with first-degree robbery, possessing a controlled substance while at jail, and third-degree malicious mischief.
During the hearing, Court Commissioner Nate Kortokrax ordered the man be released on his personal recognizance with conditions and pretrial services supervision.
A probable cause statement describes the investigation into the alleged crimes from the perspective of law enforcement.
A person called dispatch about 7 p.m. July 4 and reported a robbery in the parking lot of the Home Depot on Marvin Road Northeast.
When an officer arrived, the caller reportedly told the officer two men got out of a blue sports utility vehicle, hit an older man with a hammer, and stole his Bluetooth speakers.
The officer located the alleged victim nearby and he corroborated the witness' account, adding that they stole three of his speakers. He said he lives in his vehicle and often used the speakers as he rode his bicycle, according to the statement.
He described the two men who had allegedly robbed him. The first was reportedly about 5 foot 8 inches with a medium build and shorter blond hair. The second was 5 foot 10 inches with an average build and darker blond or brown hair.
He told the officer the first person took his speakers and the second struck him with a metal hammer-like object when he protested.
As both men returned to their vehicle, the alleged victim reportedly swung his heavy backpack at the vehicle and damaged a window.
The officer saw a large welt on the alleged victim's forearm. An unknown witness wrote down the license plate of the vehicle and shared it with the man, according to the statement.
Police looked up the license plate and learned it belonged to a Subaru Crosstrek owned by a Washington State Patrol Crime Lab employee. When contacted, the employee confirmed the vehicle was in their family's possession.
An officer located the vehicle at an apartment complex but found it had different license plates. Those plates belonged to a Subaru Forester stolen out of Tacoma, according to the probable cause statement.
Notably, the statement says Lacey police had responded earlier to those apartments after a caller reported a suspicious person looking into vehicles. However, they were unable to locate the person.
That same day, Lacey police were dispatched to a theft that occurred at a pharmacy on the 8200 block of Martin Way East. In that case, an employee reported a person with dark blond hair left the store with a shopping cart containing at least 12 bottles of alcohol.
The employee further alleged this person entered a light blue Subaru Forester with two other men and drove away, according to the statement. This reportedly occurred while the alleged robbery victim was being interviewed.
On Wednesday, Pierce County deputies located the man who was later charged with robbery. The Lacey officer who initially responded to the July 4 robbery call later got custody of the man and interviewed him, according to the statement.
The man reportedly told the officer he and another person went to the Lacey Home Depot parking lot to meet with people who were homeless.
He said they took the alleged victims' speakers in exchange for methamphetamine, but a physical confrontation ensued, according to the statement. He denied robbing the alleged victim.
The officer arrested the man based on this information. When he was searched at the Thurston County jail, the statement says law enforcement found a "tin foil with a blue unknown substance."
Charging documents allege he carried fentanyl.
