HEMPFIELD TOWNSHIP —
Prior to an armed robbery last July at Veado’s Mini Market, Shawn E. Lee and Jeffrey Anderson ate at a Greenville fast-food joint and told an employee they’d robbed a few places in the Shenango Valley.
Anderson was shot and killed by police in his car outside his Greenville home two days later as police tried to serve an arrest warrant. Lee was arrested at his Masury home Aug. 1, 2011, the last of three suspects in a spree of four convenience store robberies in three days in the area.
District Judge Brian R. Arthur, Greenville, last week bound to higher court the final case against Lee for the Hempfield Township robbery.
Lee is accused of entering the market at 181 Hadley Road at 10:30 p.m. July 24, 2011, wearing a blue bandanna over his face and carrying a shotgun, court documents said.
He demanded money and took a total of $961 from three cash registers before leaving.
Police have said Anderson, Lee and Arthur Novel, 18, of Greenville, took turns robbing places in Brookfield, Farrell, West Middlesex and Hempfield with a rusted shotgun.
Novel was identified as the gunman in the Farrell robbery and Lee in the Masury and Hempfield cases. Anderson and Novel entered the store in West Middlesex, but it’s not clear from court documents which man police believe had the gun.
On July 29, 2011, police interviewed the restaurant employee, who said Anderson and a man she knew as “L” entered the store between 7:30 and 8 p.m. July 24.
Anderson told her that he “messed up big time” and his wife would be mad. He said they’d robbed some places because he needed to make extra money to buy things they needed for their baby.
After the men ate, Anderson went outside and she went out to talk with him.
Anderson told the woman he was scared and she suggested he get flowers for his wife. Anderson told the woman he’d be back to pick her up after work but never showed up. She called him but he never answered, so a friend took her to Anderson’s apartment and he came home about 20 minutes later with a rose for his wife.
The woman identified Lee in a photo lineup as the man who was with Anderson.
During the investigation, police reviewed surveillance video from Circle K in Masury, and said Anderson bought oil, cigarettes and a flower there at 1:06 a.m. July 25, 2011.
The next day, police got a warrant to search Anderson’s home and car and found clothes and the bandannas involved in the Farrell, West Middlesex and Brookfield robberies.
Police identified Novel on July 28, 2011, and he admitted to the robberies July 22 and 23 and told police where Lee lived.
Lee is also awaiting trial on two sets of robbery and conspiracy charges from Southwest Mercer County Regional police for the robberies in Farrell and West Middlesex, as is Novel.
Mercer County District Attorney Robert G. Kochems said the cases against Novel, who was 17 at the time of the robberies but is being charged as an adult, are up for trial in October.
A charge of aggravated robbery against Lee was withdrawn in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court in connection with the robbery of Standard Market, Brookfield.
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