Man jailed in robbery; clerk tied up is his wife

Mrs. Ramsey said she would take a lie detector test.
By WILLIAM K. ALCORN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
STRUTHERS -- Shawn D. Ramsey, 28, of 222 Sexton St., pleaded innocent Monday at his arraignment in Municipal Court on charges stemming from an armed robbery late Saturday at a store where his wife was working as a clerk.
Ramsey's preliminary hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m. Friday. He is charged with aggravated robbery, safecracking and possession of criminal tools and is being held in Struthers City Jail in lieu of $20,000 bond, court officials said.
Police say they hope to determine Heather Rose Ramsey's role in the robbery within the next couple of days. She is being held in Mahoning County Jail on two active warrants from the Youngstown Police Department for falsification and possession of cocaine.
Police said Ramsey entered the Kwik Fill, 630 Youngstown-Poland Road, around 10:54 p.m. Heather Ramsey said she was in a back office finishing her closing work when she heard a noise behind her. She turned and saw a man, who she said was wearing an orange knit hat/ski mask, a gray sweater and blue jeans, pointing a black handgun at her.
What clerk said happened
She said the man struck her with either the pistol or his hand, knocking her out. When she regained consciousness, her arms were fastened with duct tape to the arms of the chair in which she was sitting. She was able to free herself and call the store manager and police. When she went to the front of the store, she said she noticed a burning odor and saw that the safe underneath the front check-out counter was broken and the cash drawer removed.
The store's surveillance tape showed the burglar, as Heather Ramsey described him, enter the store and open the safe with a metal grinder. He placed the contents of the safe in a white duffle bag and ran out the front door.
Police questioned Heather Ramsey's story because there were no signs of injury on her head and only a slight redness on her wrists where she was taped to the chair.
However, she said she would take a lie detector test to clear her name and did not hesitate to give police permission to search her home. She could not explain why she showed no signs of being hit, police said.
Ramsey met police at his home and he also gave them permission to search. Police found several wads of duct tape in the living room, and in the basement they found an electric grinder and several grinding discs. They also discovered a white duffle bag, like the one seen in the store video, and two orange ski masks.
At that point, when Ramsey was handcuffed, police said he became emotional and said he committed the robbery to pay for his crack cocaine and heroin drug habit. He told police the money was in a bin near the furnace and showed police the entrance to a crawl space where they recovered a black handgun, a pry bar and a hammer.