Detective describes similarities in robberies

By Joe Gorman

jgorman@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

The detective investigating the robbery earlier this month of a Youngstown-Poland Road fast-food restaurant testified in municipal court that the way the robbery was carried out matched other robberies in the city since the first of the year.

Detective Sgt. Michael Lambert also testified Thursday one of two suspects who chose to have a preliminary hearing, Jayquan McMullen, 21, of Taft Avenue, spent the equivalent of “juvenile life” in the custody of the Department of Youth Services for a series of similar robberies in 2013.

McMullen and co-defendant Kailio Robinson, 21, of Pasadena Avenue, had charges of aggravated robbery bound over to a Mahoning County grand jury by Judge Renee DiSalvo. Robinson waived his right to a preliminary hearing while McMullen’s case was bound over after the hearing in his case.

The two were arrested Jan. 16 after a foot-and-vehicle chase after police responded to a call of a robbery at Taco Bell, 428 Youngstown-Poland Road.

Lambert said he believes McMullen drove for a pair of men who robbed the restaurant at gunpoint, forcing employees and patrons to the floor as they took money from the cash register and put it in backpacks before running to a waiting white SUV.

The SUV failed to stop for city police officer Luis Villapalana and crossed over into Struthers, where two men inside bailed out. Robinson was one of those two men and was captured. McMullen was the driver.

Lambert said the robbery matched a Jan. 10 robbery at a Dollar General store and a Jan. 7 robbery at the Market Street Taco Bell. In both of those robberies, two armed men carried off cash in backpacks and then ran to a waiting white SUV.

Lambert also testified McMullen had served time in juvenile detention for robbing fast-food restaurants and dollar stores, including the Market Street Taco Bell.

Since October, detectives have been trying to crack a series of armed robberies at Dollar General and Family Dollar stores across the city. The only cases that Lambert spoke of in court Thursday were the robberies that happened after the first of the year.

Both men denied involvement in the Jan. 16 Taco Bell robbery, Lambert said.