Bay Minette police say a break in an armed robbery case came down to bad judgment after the fact: a teenage suspect who could not stop talking about what he had done.
Officers arrested a 17-year-old Baldwin County High School student this week and charged him as an adult with first-degree robbery, a Class A felony, after investigators say he described details of a holdup at a Dollar General store on Alabama 59 that only someone involved in the crime would know.
According to Bay Minette police, the teen was already serving a school suspension when officers picked him up. Investigators say that before the suspension, he had been overheard at school bragging to classmates and relatives about pulling off the robbery, eventually giving away enough specifics that word made its way back to law enforcement.
Because a firearm was used during the holdup, Alabama law allows prosecutors to charge a juvenile suspect as an adult, elevating the case to a first-degree robbery charge that can carry a sentence ranging from 10 years to life in prison upon conviction.
Police say surveillance footage from the store helped identify two people directly involved in the robbery, which happened in mid-September on the store’s south side. One suspect is accused of pointing a handgun at a store clerk while emptying the register, while the teen who was arrested is accused of forcing a second clerk to the floor and unsuccessfully trying to take a cell phone from the employee’s pocket. The clerk who was confronted at gunpoint later sought counseling because of the ordeal, according to investigators.
Two additional suspects, ages 19 and 21, remain wanted on warrants in connection with the case. Investigators believe one of them drove the getaway vehicle and was recorded on surveillance video scouting the store shortly before the robbery took place.
Bay Minette investigators say they have been in contact with family members of the outstanding suspects, including a parent who indicated she was trying to convince one of the men to turn himself in, as well as an employer who told police one of the suspects planned to surrender.
The case underscores a recurring theme in small-town crime investigations: social media and loose talk. Detectives said photos and posts tied to the suspects’ online accounts, along with jailhouse gossip about the robbery, helped corroborate parts of the timeline pieced together from store surveillance video.
Bay Minette police continue to ask anyone with information on the whereabouts of the two outstanding suspects to contact investigators. The case remains open as authorities work to bring all three suspects into custody and prepare charges for presentation to a Baldwin County grand jury.