Login

Gallup Sun

Thursday, Mar 28th

Last update12:57:39 AM GMT

You are here: Home

Westside Conoco robbers don’t get beer; jailed instead

E-mail Print PDF

One suspect had nun chucks

By Bernie Dotson

Sun Correspondent

Darwin Butte and Raymond Martin remain jailed May 13 on individual felony robbery charges after the two attempted a beer heist at the Conoco gas station and convenience store at 3302 W. Historic Highway 66 on May 11, according to a police report.

Both possess prior criminal records and are detained at the Gallup McKinley County Adult Detention Center on $5,000 bonds apiece, records show.

Gallup Police Officer Philamena Chischilly wrote in a report that at about 12:09 a.m. Butte, 34, and Martin, 24, were hanging around the outside confines of the store, at one point entering the store and under the guise of wanting to buy something, engaging a store clerk in small talk and going as far as to shake the hand of the clerk. One of the suspected robbers checked a food stamp card for credit and the other asked a question about the sale of alcohol.

“(Butte) told the clerk to open the liquor closet because he wanted alcohol,” Chischilly wrote. The police were called and Chischilly recorded that she was told that one of the robbers, believed to be Butte, appeared to be carrying a gun in his front belt line.

GPD backup officers swarmed the station and apprehended Butte and Martin as the two were walking east near the Microtel Inn. The two did not get the beer they wanted. Butte was carrying numb chucks which resembled the barrel of a gun, Chischilly wrote.

While detained in the back of the squad car, Butte said, “I am the one who did everything. Let me take the blame.”

The west side Conoco has been the site of at least three either attempted or flat-out robberies in as many years. Prior to Wednesday’s incident, the most recent was about six or seven months ago and around the same early morning time frame.

Share/Save/Bookmark