Break in Belleville robbery investigation leads to three charged

A robbery suspect provided the break in a separate months-old Wing China robbery case, leading police to three people they say held a restaurant employee in a headlock while they stole money from the Belleville business, according to police records.

Police were called to a robbery June 3 at Wing China, 9 Bellevue Park Plaza. There, they were told by employees that three people entered the restaurant from the back of the building — one person had a knife and another a handgun, Belleville police Detective Patrick Koebbe wrote in a search warrant application.

The gunman held the employee in a headlock while the knife-wielding robber pointed the knife at another employee. A third robber emptied the register.

Four months after that robbery, Koebbe wrote, a suspect named Deamontay Stevenson surfaced in an unrelated robbery case. He was arrested and told police who had committed the Wing China robbery in June, according to Koebbe.

After some investigation, officers arrested and interviewed 19-year-old Thomas G. Bowen. At the police station he was wearing what appeared to be the same Nike shoes pictured in the Wing China surveillance video, according to Koebbe, and eventually admitted to police that he helped rob the restaurant while armed with a pocket knife.

Bowen reportedly told police that Marvin Wallace, 19, was one of the robbers and took the money out of the register. Bowen also said his girlfriend, Autumn Moles, drove the three to and from the robbery.

Moles did not know the third suspect, but she identified him in a photo lineup during an interview, according to Koebbe.

The detective wrote that officers contacted the 23-year-old man at his Belleville apartment and reportedly saw black boots just inside the doorway that matched boots worn by one of the robbers in the surveillance footage.

He was taken in for questioning, where he told police he did not commit — or know about — the robbery.

Koebbe did not immediately return a call for comment on whether that fourth person would be charged.

Wallace, Moles and Bowen were arrested in mid-October and were still in custody at St. Clair County Jail as of Wednesday afternoon.

Wallace is facing two counts of felony armed robbery in connection with the Wing China incident.

Both Moles and Bowen are facing two felony robbery charges each in connection with the Wing China robbery, as well as two additional charges each regarding a June 3 armed robbery of three people in the 4300 block of South Park Drive.

A similar robbery occurred at Wing China in January this year. The men in that robbery entered through the back of the restaurant, as well.

This story was originally published December 6, 2017 at 12:56 PM with the headline "Break in Belleville robbery investigation leads to three charged."