Man charged in Jackson store robbery

Thanks to a tip from an informant, an Illinois man was recently charged in connection with the two-and-a-half-year-old robbery of a Jackson convenience store.

Anthony S. Mims, 33, of Collinsville, Ill., is accused of robbing the Stoggies Texaco on East Jackson Boulevard on June 20, 2000. Investigators said he used a gun to force store clerks to give him money.

If not for a tip from a probation violation suspect brought back from St. Clair County, Ill., Mims might not have been charged.

Jackson police detective Lt. James Humphreys was one of the original investigators on the Stoggies Texaco robbery.

"I worked on it for a long time, and we checked every possible suspect here," he said. "The case went cold for a while, but a suspect in an unrelated case provided information on this robbery that led us to identify Mims."

When Harold Stufflebean, 36, of Collinsville, Ill., was arrested Nov. 19 on a warrant for not paying fines on his probation, he tried to work a deal, said detective Travis Sikes of the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Department.

Informant information

"Stufflebean stated that he would like to be placed back on probation in exchange for giving information on the robbery," Sikes wrote in a probable cause statement. "We informed Stufflebean that ... first we would have to have the information regarding the robbery to see if it is useful information before speaking to a prosecutor."

Stufflebean told investigators that Mims showed up at a house in Fredericktown, Mo., with $200 to $300 in cash, a gun and some beer and admitted to robbing the store, Sikes said in his statement.

While his $5,000 cash-only bond was amended Dec. 2 to a cash or surety bond, Stufflebean's probation violation charge has not been reduced and he is scheduled to appear in court Jan. 21. He posted bond on Dec. 10.

After speaking with Stufflebean, investigators contacted the two store clerks that were working the night of the robbery. Within seconds of being shown a photo lineup, the two clerks identified Mims as the man who robbed the store.

"I remember his face staring at me," one of the witnesses wrote.

Mims is currently serving time in an Illinois prison on an unrelated theft charge, Humphreys said. His bond in the robbery case was set at $75,000, but he may not be extradited any time soon.

Arrangements have not yet been made between agencies in Missouri and Illinois as to when Mims will be brought to Jackson to face the charge in court, said Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle.

mwells@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 160