Spokane Valley robbery suspect turns himself in

The second suspect in an armed robbery that left a victim with stab wounds last week has turned himself in, the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office reported.

A friend of Richard A. Rod called authorities after 6 p.m. saying Rod “wanted to clear his name,” according to a news release from the Sheriff’s Office.

Spokane police officers contacted Rod near the Public Safety Building and turned him over to the Spokane Valley detectives working his case, the release said.

Rod, 31, was booked into the Spokane County Jail a few hours later. He faces charges of first- and third-degree assault, and first-degree robbery, in connection with a May 30 attack near Trent Elementary School.

The victim in that attack told deputies he was robbed at knifepoint by two other men, according to the Sheriff’s Office. He was treated for stab wounds that weren’t life-threatening.

Deputies with the Sheriff’s Office SWAT team arrested the other suspect, Blane M. Peterson, 31, during a raid early Friday at a home in the 14100 block of E. Wellesley Ave. Peterson faces the same set of charges.

Peterson’s criminal record includes sentences for theft, possession of a stolen motor vehicle and drug charges. He was arrested in June 2013 for firing a gun in a downtown bar and later sentenced to nine months in jail. No one was hurt in that incident.

Rod appears to have only one felony conviction in Spokane County. In 2005 he pleaded guilty to second-degree possession of stolen property and was sentenced to four days in jail, with credit given for four days served.