THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, March 9, 1995 TAG: 9503090425
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MIKE MATHER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines
Seven suspects have been charged and are in custody, Sgt. Tony Zucaro said Wednesday, and detectives are seeking as many as 10 others.
Detectives said more than 100 charges could be filed against the suspects.
The investigation centered on three similar February robberies but later expanded to include a seemingly unrelated fourth case.
In the three similar cases, pairs of sailors were approached in the Oceanfront area by a woman - or sometimes two or three women - who asked for rides home, for help with broken-down cars or for escorts to parties.
When the sailors obliged and reached the destinations, usually 76th or 77th streets near Seashore State Park, they were robbed by four armed men who stormed from nearby woods.
Twice, the ambushing gunmen claimed to be law-enforcement agents and ordered the sailors to the ground. The victims were tied up and robbed of clothes, jewelry, wallets and, in one case, a car. One sailor was knocked unconscious.
In the third similar case, a pair of sailors was robbed by three masked men after being lured behind a Virginia Beach Boulevard go-go bar to help a woman with car trouble.
The pattern also fits an unsolved crime from September in which two sailors were robbed after women lured them to 77th Street for a party.
Police said that although no charges have been filed in the September robbery, the case could be solved when the investigation into the burglary ring is finished.
But it was the seemingly unrelated February robbery that broke the case.
On Valentine's Day, detectives say, four men burst into a home in the 300 block of Hospital Drive, subdued the three adult residents and ransacked the house for nearly an hour.
One resident, a 60-year-old handicapped woman, was assaulted by the robbers, according to detectives. Another resident's car was stolen.
The investigation into the home-invasion led detectives to several locations where the loot was unloaded, including storage units, houses and pawn shops. Mingled with the home-invasion loot were items stolen in the robberies of the sailors, detectives said.
That discovery threaded the cases together and linked the home-invasion suspects to the other robberies.
Detectives soon learned that the women they suspected of luring the victims were the suspects' girlfriends and that several key suspects in the robbery ring lived in a Tiffany Lane residence, which was later searched by police.
According to a search warrant affidavit, ring members began snitching on each other after the first arrests early this month.
By late Wednesday, robbery squad detectives had arrested 25-year-old Ross Spano; 19-year-old Michael Coleson and his 20-year-old brother Shawn; 18-year-old Matthew Lutz; and two male juveniles.
Police said Spano didn't list a home address, although he was arrested at the Tiffany Lane residence. Michael Coleson lived in Oceanfront motels, and Shawn Coleson lived in the 200 block of 17th St. Lutz lived in the 600 block of 23 1/2 St.
All are either in jail or in juvenile detention. They have been charged with more than 50 felonies.
Detectives said they are continuing to build cases against the other suspects. More arrests are expected.
Police believe other sailors may have been victims but are reluctant to come forward. Anyone who has been the victim of a similar crime is asked to call the robbery squad at 427-4101.
KEYWORDS: SAILORS ROBBERY ASSAULT ARREST by CNB