THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, May 31, 1996 TAG: 9605290146
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 18 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JOHN-HENRY DOUCETTE, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: 41 lines
One of two suspects arrested May 1 in connection with a rape and robbery at a Chesapeake convenience store has been charged in two other local crimes and a third in North Carolina.
Dante L. Ashby, 32, of the 2100 block of Cuffee St. was charged in an August 1994 robbery of a Hardee's in Hickory and in an attempted rape and robbery on Whittamore Road earlier this year.
Ashby also was charged with robbery, abduction and the use of a firearm in the commission of a convenience store robbery in North Carolina.
Police said two men walked into Little Earl's Market in the 2600 block of South Battlefield Blvd. at 9 p.m. April 28 and robbed store employees at gunpoint. The robbers taped the hands and feet of the employees, raped one of the women in the front section of the store, then fled the crime scene on foot.
Chesapeake Detectives Ricky L. Henderson and Linda M. White were assigned to the case that night, and one suspect was immediately identified as a result of their investigation. The second suspect was identified through a telephone tip through the Crime Line program.
After questioning Ashby, Henderson and White were able to charge him with the other crimes. He has been charged with attempted rape, attempted robbery, burglary and use of a firearm.
The investigation into the four crimes has led to two other arrests. Kunta Kason, 19, of the 4100 block of Front Royal Road in Virginia Beach has been charged with attempted rape, attempted robbery, burglary and use of a firearm in the Whittamore crime, and a second juvenile, 17, was charged in the North Carolina robbery.
There have been 38 charges made in these four cases.
Approximately nine weapons have been recovered from the suspects, the detectives said. That number includes the two firearms recovered in the Little Earl crime and the weapon used in the Whittamore crime.
The names of the juveniles are being withheld because of their ages.
White said more arrests are pending in relation to the cases.
KEYWORDS: ROBBERY RAPE ARREST by CNB