THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 12, 1995 TAG: 9507120418
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LARRY W. BROWN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines
Police on Tuesday filed additional charges against an armed robbery suspect after another victim - a 62-year-old recently retired English teacher - saw the man's picture in a Tuesday edition of The Virginian-Pilot.
The suspect, 22-year-old Elijah O. Morris Jr., who was captured after he allegedly robbed a woman at gunpoint in Norfolk on Monday, was identified by another woman after she saw a photograph of him in the newspaper.
Bess Melvin of Norfolk was robbed of her van Saturday by an armed man as she was leaving a store in the 800 block of N. Military Highway, police spokesman Larry Hill said. Her van was recovered, but the thief was still at large.
Melvin said she saw the article and photo in the newspaper about 6:15 a.m. Tuesday.
``I mentally put the two together because he did resemble the guy,'' said Melvin.
Melvin said the man who robbed her did not have as much hair as the man in the photograph, so she was not entirely convinced. She later discovered that the newspaper photograph was a few years old, she said.
Later Tuesday morning, a police officer stopped at Melvin's Norfolk home with a selection of photographs. She identified Morris from the picture lineup.
Morris was then charged in the Melvin case with robbery, carjacking, two counts of use of a firearm and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, Hill said.
Melvin said she was getting into her van in the parking lot when a man approached. He demanded her purse and that she get out of the vehicle. Melvin said she just looked at him.
Then the man repeated the order, and flashed a handgun tucked into the waistband of his pants. Melvin complied. Seconds later, the man had sped away.
``I was in total shock,'' said Melvin. ``I couldn't believe he had told me to get out of the car.''
Her van, a 1985 Plymouth Voyager, was recovered later that night near Military Circle mall.
Melvin taught at Maury High School for 19 years after teaching at Lake Taylor High for two.
Police said on Monday that Morris robbed 22-year-old Toni N. Jones at gunpoint of her money, jewelry and her 1992 Lexus in the parking lot of Military Circle. Jones and her year-old son, both of the 1000 block of Kittrell St., were not injured.
Morris was apprehended about an hour later in Hampton after attempting to evade police. State police captured him after he abandoned the Lexus on Paul Jack Drive. He was found hiding under a porch.
He was charged in that case with robbery of a car at gunpoint, two counts of the use of a firearm and the use of a firearm by a convicted felon, police said.
Morris, of the 1300 block of W. 40th St., was being held in the Hampton City Jail on charges in connection with another armed robbery of a car that occurred in that city July 2.
In that robbery, the victim was sitting in her car in the parking lot of a restaurant in the 1000 block of W. Mercury Blvd., said Hampton police spokesman Donnie Moore.
The woman, whose name was not released, was waiting for a passenger when she noticed a dark blue Cadillac approaching with two people inside.
One of the suspects, believed to be Morris, opened the victim's door and pointed what appeared to be a black revolver and ordered her out of the car.
He was charged in that case with carjacking, use of a firearm and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, Moore said.
KEYWORDS: ROBBERY ARREST by CNB