“Without the public’s help, sometimes these cases go unsolved,” said Detective Ronald W. Jordan. “We really appreciate the information that they called in and provided us. Without that, we may not have a resolution to this and Mr. Stokes could still be out robbing businesses or potentially hurting someone.”
Stokes is accused of robbing Security National Bank on West Main Street, the Speedway store on South Burnett Road twice and the Speedway at 1314 E. Main St.
Jordan said Stokes first went into the bank on July 18 and handed the teller a note demanding money.
The note said, “no bank tape, no trackers, no die packs, $5,000.00.”
Surveillance pictures from the robbery were put out to the public on the police department’s Facebook page, but no charges were filed at the time due to lack of suspect information.
“We got some tips early on, but the issue at that time was he wasn’t from the Springfield area so we had limited information here locally about him,” Jordan said.
But that wasn’t the case for long.
Jordan said Stokes is also accused of three Speedway robberies.
The first — on Sept. 22 at the store on South Burnett Road.
According to court documents, the suspect ordered the clerk to the register while he had his hand in his jacket as if he had a gun.
Police say that in addition to robbing the store — Stokes bloodied up a cashier who was working at the time.
The documents go on to say,“The suspect punched (the victim) in the face with a closed fist after grabbing cash from the cash register. After that, the suspect left the store out the front heading north towards East High Street.”
But it was after this robbery that Jordan said police started to get hot on Stokes’ trail.
Stokes allegedly shed a layer of clothes after the robbery, and they were found by officers nearby. Jordan said he also saw surveillance video from an apartment complex that helps to put Stokes at Speedway during the time of the crime.
“(I) find Mr. Stokes leaving — carrying a gym bag and a different set of clothes. He leaves shortly before the robbery and returns short time later,” Jordan said.
Police also had additional help cracking the case from an anonymous caller alerting them the robber lived in the apartment complex. The caller said they heard a person at the complex admit to robbing the Speedway.
It was after this robbery that police put out a warrant for Stokes’ arrest. The plan of attack was to serve the warrant on Oct. 4, but two more robberies happened in that time frame.
On Oct. 2, the Speedway store on East Main Street was robbed — then another robbery at the Burnett Road Speedway on Oct. 3, but this time Stokes had a gun that he used to threaten the cashier and get away with the money.
During these robberies, Jordan said Stokes used a similar approach when robbing the stores as far as shedding layers of clothes, but that ultimately led to his demise.
Jordan said it was after the Oct. 3 robbery that police rounded up Stokes and took him to jail.
Court documents say that Stokes has prior convictions for aggravated burglary and aggravated robbery out of Montgomery County.
Stokes was listed in custody at the Clark County Jail as of Tuesday evening on a $30,000 bond.