Charges filed against fourth suspect in Chevron armed robbery attempt
A criminal complaint was filed Friday in Yuma Justice Court against a fourth suspect arrested in connection to the attempted armed robbery that occurred at the Chevron, 10747 S. Fortuna Road on Oct. 20th.
Appearing before Judge Nehomy Echavarria, 18-year-old Donovan Assude was informed that he had been charged with a total of five felony offenses.
Those offenses, she told him, are armed robbery, aggravated robbery, endangerment and two counts of aggravated assault.
Assude, who was arrested by deputies from the Yuma County Sheriff’s Office (YSCO) at his home on Tuesday, turned 18 years old last month.
“Assude participated in the planning,” said YCSO spokesperson Tania Pavlak. “He remained near a Conex box and did not go all the way to the Chevron.”
While the other three suspects involved in the attempted robbery have also been arrested and charged as adults, their names aren’t being released because they are still juveniles.
In addition to ordering Assude’s bond remain at $150,000 cash-only, Echavarria also scheduled his next court hearing for 4 p.m. on Nov. 12.
The attempted armed robbery at the Chevron happened at approximately 4:30 a.m. and when deputies arrived on scene they learned that three suspects, one of whom was armed with a handgun, had entered the store.
However, as the armed suspect was approaching the counter he was disarmed and taken to the ground by Marine Corps veteran James Kilcer, who had stopped off at the store that morning on his way to work at Yuma Proving Ground.
The two other suspects immediately fled after seeing what had happened.
Kilcer, who served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 2007 to 2011 as a tactical air operations technician and was stationed at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, has since been honored with a Citizen’s Valor Award from the Yuma County Sheriff’s Office – which is the agency’s highest recognition for community members.
The suspect detained during the incident was a juvenile and was booked into the Yuma County Juvenile Justice Center on charges of armed robbery and aggravated assault.
Two days later, on Oct. 22nd, at approximately 10 a.m., deputies arrested a second juvenile suspect believed to be involved in the incident.
A third suspect, also a juvenile, was arrested on Saturday Oct. 23 at approximately 10 p.m. after being detained by the Yuma Police Department in an unrelated incident.
While in custody deputies were also able to link the juvenile to being involved in the Oct. 11th robbery that occurred at the Circle K, located at 3640 W. 8th Street, in which the suspect fled the business with an undisclosed amount of money and a vape pen display.