One suspect carried nun chucks
Darwin Butte and Raymond Martin remained jailed May 18 at the McKinley County Adult Detention Center on attempted robbery charges, officials said.
The two were apprehended by officers with the Gallup Police Department after an attempt to steal beer from the Conoco gas station and convenience store at 3302 W. Historic Highway 66.
Both possess prior criminal records, particularly Martin who has a criminal history dating back to February of 2014. Both Butte and Martin are jailed at the detention facility on individual $5,000 bail bonds, Jail Warden Steve Silversmith said.
Gallup Police Officer Philamena Chischilly wrote in a report that at about 12:09 am, Butte, 34, and Martin, 24, were hanging around the outside area 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 say hello and shake the hand of one of two store clerks that was working.
“(Butte) told the clerk to open the liquor closet because he wanted alcohol,” Chischilly wrote. Police arrived at the scene and Chischilly recorded that she was told that one of the robbers, believed to be Butte, appeared to be carrying a gun.
Butte and Martin were taken into custody as they were walking east near the Microtel Inn. The two did not get the beer they wanted. Butte was carrying nun chucks that resembled the barrel of a gun, Chischilly wrote in the police report.
While detained in the back of the squad car, Butte uttered, “I am the one who did everything. Let me take the blame.”
The west side Conoco has been the site of at least three robberies in less than two years. Prior to Wednesday’s incident, the most recent of an attempted robbery was about six or seven months ago and around the same early morning time frame.
No one has been arrested in connection with either of the previous incidents. There were no attorneys listed in jail records for either Butte or Martin.
By Bernie Dotson
Sun Correspondent
