The Herald, Sharon, Pa.

Local News

July 10, 2012

Caught!

Accused jewelry thieves arrested within 45 min.

By Tom Davidson Herald Staff Writer

HERMITAGE — Two Columbus, Ohio, men were unable to evade a swarm of law enforcement after they allegedly robbed King’s Jewelry in the Shenango Valley Mall on Monday morning.

One of the men, Anthony D. Jacobs, was picked up in the trash disposal area outside Bob Evans restaurant, while the other, Terrance L. Jackson, was flushed from the men’s restroom of Applebee’s restaurant by members of the Mercer County Critical Incident Response Team, police said.

Hermitage and Sharon police, the county sheriff’s department and CIRT swarmed the commercial area around the Shenango Valley Mall and Hermitage Square after the robbery was reported at 11:50 a.m. at King’s in the mall.

According to the police affidavit:

Jacobs, 23, armed with a handgun, and Jackson, 40, with a crowbar, walked into the store, demanded jewelry and threatened to shoot the employees if they didn’t cooperate.

Jackson used the crowbar to pry open a cabinet and took about $100,000 worth of jewelry; Jacobs made away with more than $70,000 worth of jewelry.

The men left the mall, walked south across the parking lot and threw the gun and crowbar over a wall into a gated storage area of Sears Automotive, witnesses told police.

They crossed East State Street and into the Hermitage Square Plaza parking lot, where Jacobs hid behind Bob Evans. Jackson entered Applebee’s and headed to the men’s restroom.

Police with a K-9 unit cleared Applebee’s when Jackson wouldn’t come out of the restroom stall where he’d locked himself in. While awaiting arrival of CIRT, authorities found Jacobs behind Bob Evans.

A small crowd of onlookers gathered on the perimeter of the restaurants’ parking lot and traffic along North Hermitage Road was thick with curiosity-seekers who saw the large-scale police response. More than 20 law enforcement officials responded to the call.

Jackson surrendered to police at about 12:30 p.m. and “numerous” pieces of jewelry were recovered from the restroom; King’s employees identified the pieces as belonging to the store, police said.

King’s officials declined comment, as did Applebee’s employees.

Meghann Flynn, the mall’s general manager, said emergency response procedures were followed and worked.

“We have a great system here,” Flynn said.

She thanked police for the quick work they made of the case.

The men were arraigned at about 6:30 p.m. by District Judge Lorinda Hinch in Mercer.

Jacobs is charged with robbery, conspiracy to commit robbery, theft by unlawful taking, conspiracy to commit theft, carrying a firearm without a license, conspiracy to carry a firearm, possession of a firearm by someone prohibited to do so and receiving stolen property.

Jackson is charged with robbery, conspiracy to commit robbery, theft by unlawful taking, conspiracy to commit theft and receiving stolen property.

Both men have previous criminal convictions and have served time in Ohio jails, they told the judge.

“There’s so many I didn’t list them,” Jackson told Hinch when asked why he left the criminal history portion of his bail form blank.

Jacobs got out of jail about 8 months ago after being convicted of a gun violation, he told Hinch.

She set bail at $500,000 for each of them.

“These are very serious charges. There’s a gun involved. There’s a threat of violence involved,” Hinch told them before Hermitage police took them to Mercer County Jail.

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