Man gets life for jewelry-store robbery

A Memphis, Tennessee, man was sentenced this week to life in prison for his role in a 2009 robbery at a Cape Girardeau jewelry store.

Darryl House, 30, already had two prior robbery convictions when he was convicted of helping rob the Jayson Jewelers store at 97 N. Kingshighway, according to a news release Tuesday from the U.S. attorney's office.

On April 7 a federal jury found House guilty of one count each of aiding and abetting the interference with commerce by threat or violence and aiding and abetting the possession of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence.

House and three co-defendants -- Charla Dinkins, Keyessence Fountain and Kevin Stitt, all of Tennessee -- initially faced state charges in connection with the Sept. 23, 2009, robbery, but those charges later were dropped, and the case went to federal court.

House's co-defendants all pleaded guilty in federal court, receiving sentences ranging from five and a half to 10 years in prison, online federal court records show.

House's prior aggravated robbery convictions in Tennessee and Illinois made him subject to the federal "three strikes" law, which imposes a mandatory sentence of life in prison on anyone convicted of three violent felonies, according to the news release.

DNA evidence connected Stitt to the robbery.

Stitt admitted he and three other people -- a man and two women -- came from Memphis to Cape Girardeau to rob a jewelry store, detective Don Perry of the Cape Girardeau Police Department wrote in a probable-cause affidavit filed in the state case in 2012.

Stitt said he and one of the women posed as a couple shopping for wedding rings until House came into the store, at which point Stitt handcuffed the clerk, duct-taped her eyes shut and put her in a closet, Perry wrote.

House, Stitt and Fountain took $90,000 worth of jewelry and cash from the store, and Dinkins drove them back to Memphis, the U.S. attorney's office reported.

In May 2012, nearly three years after the robbery, the Missouri State Highway Patrol's crime lab linked Stitt to the crime through DNA recovered from the handcuffs.

In September, Cape Girardeau County Circuit Court records showed Stitt identified Dinkins and House from a photo lineup police obtained from the Shelby County, Tennessee, Sheriff's Department.

House's name and driver's license number appeared on a receipt from a local motel that showed he checked in before the robbery and checked out the day of the robbery, the circuit court records showed.

epriddy@semissourian.com

388-3642

Pertinent address:

97 N. Kingshighway, Cape Girardeau, MO