Two men have been charged in the $70,000 robbery of a Salt Lake City jewelry store.
Twenty-nine-year-old Jerome Welton McWilliams and 33-year-old Darnel Batts were charged with aggravated robbery, the Jewelers’ Security Alliance reports. The crime took place on Halloween 2019 at Stroud Jewelers.
According to JSA:
In that incident, the suspects expressed interest in purchasing several pieces of jewelry. While McWilliams looked at rings, the charges say he told Batts “go out to the car to get a bag that contained 20 G’s because he was going to buy his girlfriend some rings.”
Upon Batts returning with a duffel bag, McWilliams grabbed the owner who was helping the men and pushed him against a wall. McWilliams then ordered the owner to open all of the display cases so they could take everything. McWilliams removed handgun from his waistband and pointed it at the owner’s face.
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JSA had a role in the investigation. After police released security photos, JSA “contacted Salt Lake police to inform them that they ‘immediately recognized the suspects as being involved in a series of eight different robberies out of California over the past four months,'” the Deseret News reports, citing an affidavit filed in the case.