Detectives Charge 2 Robbery Suspects, Concluding a Lengthy Investigation of a 2017 Armed Robbery at a Spokane Valley Home
Yesterday, Spokane Valley Major Crimes Detective Darin Staley charges two suspects, both with several felony convictions, with Robbery 1st Degree. The suspects are believed to have been armed when they entered a Spokane Valley home, demanding drugs and money from the victim in February 2017.
On February 23, 2017, at approximately 3:30 a.m., Spokane Valley Deputies responded to a residence in the 700 block of S. Arties for a report of two subjects, armed with guns, who broke into the residence and demanded money.
During an initial interview of one of the occupants of the home, Deputies were told he was sleeping when two males, wearing black jackets and black bandanas covering their faces, woke him up. Both suspects were described as white, medium build males, one armed with a rifle, and one with a shotgun. They told the victim they knew he had money and guns and demanded them.
During the robbery, one of the victim’s roommates started to exit his bedroom which distracted the two suspects. The victim struggled with one of the suspects and gained control of a shotgun and pointed it at the other suspect. As he pulled the trigger, the suspect he had taken the weapon from, hit the barrel upward causing the shot to hit the ceiling. The victim was then struck in the head with the butt end of a gun. He got up and ran from the residence to call 911 while his roommates barricaded themselves in their bedroom.
Deputies, with the assistance of K9 Lalso and his handler Deputy Thurman, cleared the residence to check for the suspects and determine if anyone inside was injured. Deputies observed several items (drug paraphernalia) commonly used in the sales and abuse of controlled substances.
Additional Deputies set up a perimeter and Deputy Thurman and K9 Laslo attempted a track to locate the fleeing suspects. They located a Ziploc baggie, filled with what appeared to be methamphetamine, wrapped in a shirt and hidden under a piece of equipment in the back yard. Despite their continued efforts, the suspects were not located.
Spokane Valley Major Crimes Detectives responded to the scene to continue the investigation. The victims inside the residence denied ownership of the drugs or knowing who the suspects were.
Through the interviews, Detectives learned the roommate, who exited his bedroom prior to the shotgun being fired by the victim, wears hearing aids and is partially deaf. During a search of the residence, they located a dry erase board believed to have been left by the suspects in the victim’s room with a phrase “Dope & $ or you die” written on it. They also recovered a roll of duct tape in the same bedroom.
With all the information and evidence gained during the investigation, Detectives surmised the roommate was the intended target of the robbery, possibly over drugs and money, and the suspects presented the message on the dry erase board to the victim, believing he was deaf.
Several items were submitted to the Washington State Patrol Crime Lab for fingerprint and DNA processing. The cumulative results of the of the testing led Detectives to 51-year-old Jesse R. Adams, Jr. (7 time convicted felon) and 41-year-old Jason J. Knight (18 time convicted felon).
Continuing the investigation, Detective Staley developed additional information supporting the lab results. Yesterday morning, Detective Staley added a Robbery 1st Degree to the booking charges of Adams and Knight, who were already in custody at the Spokane County Jail for unrelated charges.