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Klutzy robber led detective to link 6 robberies, now subject of trial
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
One of two city police detectives investigating six armed robberies within three weeks in October 2013 said in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court on Friday they were able to link the robberies because of their similarities — including the fact that one of the robbers was a klutz.
Detective Sgt. Mike Lambert told jurors in front of Judge Lou D’Apolito in the aggravated-robbery trial of 20-year-old Joseph Mascarella that in one of the robberies, someone ran out and lost a shoe. In another robbery, one of the robbers dropped the bag used to carry the money. And in the last robbery, Oct. 18, 2013, at a Subway restaurant on East Midlothian Boulevard, one of the robbers ran into the store and tripped “violently.”
“We got this clumsy guy committing all three of these robberies,” Lambert said.
There were other similiarities detectives were able to home in on as well, Lambert said, such as there were usually two people who went in and one was armed, a third person was waiting outside in a getaway car and one of the robbers who went inside would count down backward from five when giving orders.
Mascarella faces 15 counts of aggravated robbery for the robberies. A co-defendant already has pleaded guilty.
Lawyers on both sides wrapped up their cases Friday. Mascarella did not testify. Closing arguments are expected Monday morning.
Lambert was assigned to a couple of the robberies, mainly a Family Dollar on Market Street and a Taco Bell, also on Market Street, and he teamed up with Detective Sgt. Tom Parry, who was investigating the other reports, when the two compared notes and came to the conclusion that the robberies probably were related.
Detectives moved with a sense of urgency after the Subway robbery, where one of the robbers held a gun to the head of a patron and pulled the trigger, but the gun did not fire, Lambert said.
“It seemed like it was progressing, and someone would get shot, if not killed.” Lambert said.
Police went to the media and got tips from the public on the robberies that led detectives to check a home in the 500 block of East Midlothian Boulevard, Lambert said. Inside the home after receiving consent to search from the owner, they found clothes that matched those the robbers were seen wearing on video, and behind the house in the yard were 12 cash registers that had checks or gift cards inside that linked them to the stores, Lambert said.
Mascarella and two co-defendants also were found inside the home, and a car the robbers were described as using for their getaway was also found at the home, Lambert said.
Lambert said once he and Parry concluded the robberies were linked, their main focus was to find the car they were using.
“Our best lead was to find the car, then find the guys who were in it,” Lambert testified.