Police: Men used teen to lure victim
Two men accused of using a teenage girl to lure a robbery victim spent the money on a shopping spree at a Spokane mall, court papers allege.
The purchases helped detectives build the felony case against Richard W. Hall and Ronald E. Davis, both of whom pleaded innocent Thursday in Spokane County Superior Court to charges of first-degree robbery and second-degree assault. Police allege the men conspired with the girl to rob Arturo Ferrer Lezama near Upriver Driver and the Centennial Trail in August, leaving Lezama badly beaten.
Mariah J. Bigelow, who turned 17 last month, was charged as an adult with felony first-degree robbery in early September.
Davis, 25, and Hall, 26, were picked up about three weeks later.
Investigators connected the men to the crime through receipts and interviews with an employee at a shoe store where Davis bought a pair of Nikes just after the robbery, according to a probable cause affidavit.
Hall and Davis are in Spokane County Jail on $50,000 bond after being arraigned Thursday. Bigelow is out on $2,500 bond.
Lezama might lose his left eye because of the Aug. 21 assault, said Deputy Prosecutor Steve Garvin.
Lezama had bought Bigelow items from the Spokane Valley Wal-Mart with his newly cashed $700 paycheck when the two traveled to a secluded area just off Upriver Drive, according to the affidavit from the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office.
Bigelow talked with two men in a dark blue Jeep for several minutes before the men pulled Lezama from the car, according to the affidavit.
Davis told detectives that he “pushed the victim to the ground ‘pretty hard’ and then told him ‘where’s the money?’ ”
A couple found Lezama bloody and staggering in the road and called 911.
Detectives contacted Bigelow’s sister, who said the teen was at her home that morning “with a male who was 6-foot-5 and 230 pounds with a tattoo on one arm of the state of Washington with a 509,” according to the affidavit.
That man was identified as Davis.
Receipts found in the Jeep Davis drove led a sheriff’s sergeant to several stores where the three suspects shopped after the robbery, according to the affidavit.