Authorities have identified a suspect in connection with a March store robbery in Gans, Okla.
Sequoyah County Sheriff Ron Lockhart said James A. Reed was interviewed Monday, Oct. 21 after new evidence connected him to the robbery.
Records show Reed had been booked into the Sequoyah County Detention Center in July on charges of lewd or indecent proposals or acts to a child and two counts of rape by instrument. Lockhart said Reed will now also be charged with aggravated armed robbery.
Lockhart said just before 10 p.m. March 24, the suspect entered the Gans Git-N-Go on the corner of highways 64 and 141 and locked a store employee in a cooler at gunpoint before taking off with an unknown amount of money. No one was injured in the robbery.
Investigators reviewed surveillance video of the robbery and suspected the robber was an employee or former employee at the Git-N-Go. Sissy Crow, who works at the gas station, said Reed is the husband of a former employee at the gas station.
"He was in here all the time," said Crow. "He knew where everything was. He knew who worked, when and when they were alone, and when would be the best time to catch them with money in the drawer."
Crow said she was surprised to hear of Reed's other charges.
"When that came out then it kind of made you look at him in another light," said Crow. "Which then kind of led to looking at him, 'Well, maybe he had something to do with this,' and, wow, he did."
According to the sheriff, it's not uncommon for new information to surface in cases like this which have seemingly gone cold.
"You don't have very many armed robberies over here," said Lockhart. "That's usually how it happens. After it dies down, that's when we start getting information and that's typical on burglaries, car break-ins or armed robberies."
Lockhart said Reed is scheduled to appear in court for the armed robbery charge on Wednesday, Oct. 23.