Suspects charged in Moultrie store robbery

Published 1:00 pm Wednesday, December 13, 2017

MOULTRIE, Ga. — A fourth suspect in an October armed robbery of a Moultrie Dollar General store was in custody on Tuesday and charges also have been filed against the three others.

Akivie Bailey, 20, has been charged with two counts of armed robbery and one count each of aggravated assault and kidnapping, Moultrie Police Department Sgt. Justin Lindsay said on Tuesday.

On Sunday, Colquitt and Thomas County sheriff’s deputies, with help from other agencies, took the other three into custody after a Friday night robbery of another Dollar General in Pavo. A juvenile male, who is not a suspect in the Moultrie hold-up, also was arrested in connection with the robbery in Thomas County, according to authorities.

The three adults taken into custody on Sunday — Dontavious Tyriq Jenkins, Rafael Spindola Merritt and Isaiah Dishawn Thomas — also are suspects in the Oct. 13 robbery of the Camilla Highway Dollar General store in Moultrie.

Moultrie police have charged Jenkins, 19, and Merritt and Thomas, both 20, with one count each of armed robbery, aggravated assault, false imprisonment and kidnapping in connection with that hold-up, Lindsay said.

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In addition to the robbery inside the store in which money was taken from the safe and cash register, Bailey is accused of robbing at gunpoint a store employee in the parking lot as they tried to run away.

Jenkins, Merritt and Thomas are accused of forcing another employee from the parking lot back inside the store.