The Herald, Sharon, Pa.

Local News

December 23, 2009

UPDATE: Cops: Parents confirm woman’s role in 2008 robbery

By Monica Pryts

JAMESTOWN — A year after Shawkey’s Market in Jamestown was robbed at gunpoint, an Ohio woman has been arrested for the crime.

Charges were filed Dec. 16 against Kelly Ann Pearson, 26, Conneaut, according to a news release issued Tuesday night by state police.

Ms. Pearson was taken into custody Monday in Ohio by agents from the U.S. Marshal’s Office, Erie.

She was arraigned Tuesday by District Judge Brian Arthur, Greenville, and taken to Mercer County Jail after failing to post $100,000 bond.

Her preliminary hearing is 10:30 a.m. Monday and she faces charges of robbery, aggravated assault, theft by unlawful taking, firearms not to be carried without a license, terroristic threats, possessing instruments of crime and recklessly endangering another person.

According to the police complaint:

A woman entered Shawkey’s, 305 Liberty St., at 7:56 p.m. Dec. 10, 2008, approached the counter and pulled a semi-automatic handgun from her purse, pointing it at cashier Helen Styno.

The woman demanded all of the store’s money, or else she’d shoot Ms. Styno. The woman left the store with an unspecified amount of money.

On Aug. 12, police interviewed Ms. Pearson’s parents, Karen and Thomas Mick. Mrs. Mick said her daughter is addicted to drugs, her life is spiraling out of control and she was at Ashtabula County Jail in Ohio.

Mrs. Mick visited her daughter in jail one day and they talked about how Ms. Pearson got caught shoplifting. Ms. Pearson also admitted her involvement in the Jamestown robbery, Mrs. Mick said.

She said she should have known “something was up” because Ms. Pearson spent hundreds of dollars on Christmas gifts for her children but was unemployed.

Ms. Pearson told her mother she and her boyfriend Chuck were in Jamestown and they pulled into “this little Ma and Pa-type store.”

Chuck went inside the store and came running out, jumping into the car and saying they needed to get out of there, with Ms. Pearson driving away, she told her mother.

Ms. Pearson wrote a letter to Mrs. Mick dated May 26, 2009, which was turned over to police and said Ms. Pearson would explain the “Jamestown thing” later.

The Micks were shown surveillance photos from the store’s security cameras the night of the robbery and confirmed their daughter as the woman pictured with a gun.

The photo was also released to the media but police didn’t say what information led them to Ms. Pearson and her parents.

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