Heist informant faces attempted murder rap
WEST PALM BEACH — The FBI informant who helped to foil a $4 million bank heist last month was arrested Wednesday on an attempted murder charge, Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office records said.
Chester Robinson, 30, faces charges in the Feb. 5 robbery and shooting of a man at a West Palm Beach-area apartment.
Martiavius Williams, one of the men facing federal charges in that foiled bank heist, told sheriff ’s authorities last week that Robinson said he and another man stole items worth $10,000 from a man in early February.
That other man, Daryl Canady, reportedly stood in a stairwell at about 2:30 p.m. Feb. 5 at the Dyson Circle complex off Haverhill Road north of Summit Boulevard. Canady, a Riviera Beach man in his 40s, told a 57-year-old man walking by to “drop it off,” meaning that man’s gold jewelry.
Robinson, who was in a second-floor hallway, shot the man in the stomach, records show. Robinson and Canady took the man’s gold chains, bracelets and
watch. Robinson shot at the man’s head.
Robinson and Canady fled when the man screamed for help. He was flown to St. Mary’s Medical Center for emergency surgery, the sheriff ’s office said.
Neighbors said they heard gunshots and saw two men run toward a car and speed off.
Authorities linked the getaway car to Robinson’s girlfriend. Last week, they found it parked outside Robinson’s Cape Coral home near Fort Myers, records show.
Robinson helped FBI authorities stop Canady’s plan to kill an armored truck’s guards and steal $4 million in cash, sheriff’s office records show. As part of the investigation into the plan that Canady had masterminded for two years, FBI authorities put a recording device on Robinson.
During one of the recorded conversations, Canady mentioned the Feb. 5 robbery and shooting.
“You shot that (expletive) in front of me, faces in play and everything,” Canady said to Robinson, meaning they were not wearing masks.
The man they robbed identified Canady in a photo lineup as the man who stole his jewelry and Robinson as the one who shot him.
Sheriff ’s records indicate authorities have probable cause to arrest Canady in the Feb. 5 incident, though it does not appear charges have been filed against him.
Canady has been in federal custody since a Feb. 20 FBI takedown on Interstate 95 near Palm City during one of the test runs for the bank heist. The men had planned to rob an armored truck carrying cash from a PNC Bank in Port St. Lucie, federal documents show.
The Martin County Sheriff ’s Office’s helicopter captured aerial footage of the rush-hour takedown, which closed part of the highway. Williams and Alger Lee Ellison were taken into custody then as well.
It’s unclear whether Robinson was in the car when authorities surrounded them.
Records indicate Robinson, who also goes by Chester Huggins, pleaded guilty to a 2015 bank robbery in which he and his co-conspirators made off with nearly $20,000. He was released from federal prison in October, records show.
Sheriff ’s authorities said Robinson is a 10-time convicted felon. Judge Dina Keever-Agrama on Thursday ordered that he be held without bail at the Palm Beach County Jail.