Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 25, 1995 TAG: 9503270047
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK AND DIANE STRUZZI STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Roanoke police gave the following account:
About 8 a.m., a man walked into the Village Store in the 3900 block of Melrose Avenue Northwest and made small talk with the clerk for several minutes before pulling a gun.
After taking an undetermined amount of cash from the register, the robber ordered the employee to a back room before fleeing in a beige car.
A short time later, a patrol officer in the area heard a report of the robbery and immediately recognized the car as matching the description of one in a stolen car report he had taken on Madison Avenue just minutes earlier.
Police then learned that a man thought to have taken the car had left the Madison Avenue area that morning, after his friend had been arrested on a charge of failure to appear in court in a child support case.
Believing that the man would try to bond his friend out of jail, police were waiting for him when he arrived at the city jail in a taxi shortly before noon Friday.
Boyd Oliver Miller, 31, of Salem, was arrested and charged with robbery and use of a firearm. Police found a handgun hidden in the taxi, but the stolen car had not been located.
Salem police also placed charges against Miller on Friday afternoon, accusing him of two robberies in their jurisdiction.
At 10 p.m. Thursday, police said, a man fitting Miller's description walked into the Hardee's at 1557 E. Main St. and ordered a cup of coffee. When the clerk opened the cash register, the man displayed a handgun, took the cash and fled on foot. About three hours later, a man fitting Miller's description robbed a clerk at the Orange Market at 2723 W. Main St. in a similar fashion.
Salem police charged Miller with two counts of armed robbery, two counts of using a firearm in a felony and one count of possession of a handgun as a convicted felon.
by CNB