DAYTONA BEACH -- A victim of a Saturday convenience store robbery near Daytona Beach got a good look at the suspects' getaway vehicle, to include the licenseplate, giving Volusia County Sheriff's deputies a valuable lead they needed to track down the suspects, Sheriff's spokesman Brandon Haught said.
Two men are now in the Volusia County Branch Jail in Daytona Beach charged with armed robbery with a firearm. There were no injuries during the actual robbery, and one suspect only implied he had a gun, but never actually displayed one. The store clerk and a customer were the only two in the store at the time.
The robbery happened at approximately 3:52 p.m. at Kelly's Food Mart, 1000 Derbyshire Road. The 49-year-old clerk told responding deputies that he was at the front counter when a man with his face covered approached him. The man implied he had a weapon and ordered the clerk, "Give me the money. Give me the money."
The clerk opened the cash register and handed over approximately $250. The robber grabbed the money, ran outside and jumped into a car. The clerk hit the store's panic button and then ran outside to watch which direction the vehicle went. The car sped away, but then turned around and headed the opposite direction, giving the clerk a good look at the gray Monte Carlo and its license plate. A customer didn't see much of the robbery, only noting that there was a brief commotion at the counter, but when the clerk then yelled that he had just been robbed, the 60-year-old man looked outside and saw the getaway vehicle, too.
About a half hour later, deputies conducting an area search found the car parked on Pinewood Avenue. Deputies contacted the registered owner, Todd Horst, by telephone and discovered that he was inside 821 Pinewood Ave. Horst willingly stepped outside of the house to talk with deputies. Deputies then asked the other occupants of the home to come outside, and Gary Butler and two women complied. However, four other women remained inside, refusing to come out despite repeated requests to do so. Because the original crime possibly involved a weapon, and because evidence of the crime could be inside, deputies obtained a search warrant for the
house. As a Sheriff's Office SWAT team prepared to enter the house, Lisa Farrish came outside and deputies quickly secured her. Then at 11 p.m., the SWAT team entered the home and detained the three women remaining inside.
Investigators then interviewed all of those detained and learned that when Horst and Butler showed up at 821 Pinewood Ave., Butler showed off several twenty dollar bills. Then when deputies arrived, Butler quickly changed clothes and asked the women to tell deputies that he and Horst had been at the house for several hours, Haught said.
Horst and Butler, along with four women, were arrested and transported to the jail without further incident. The two women who originally walked out of the house with the men were released. The defendants and their charges are as follows:
* Todd Horst, 40, from Port Orange, armed robbery with a firearm.
* Gary Butler, 27, from Hilly Hill, armed robbery with a firearm.
* Danielle Shayla, 23, from Daytona Beach, resisting arrest without violence.
* Alice Favors, 47, from Daytona Beach, resisting arrest without
violence.
* Lisa Farrish, 45, from Ormond Beach, resisting arrest without
violence.
* Mayetta Cross, 51, from Daytona Beach, resisting arrest
without violence.