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Tyler R. Madden, left, and Zachary L. Roberts were arrested in connection with a robbery at a Deerfield Township UDF store. Photos/Warren County Jail

The Enquirer

Warren County sheriff’s deputies arrested a United Dairy Farmers clerk who authorities say conspired with his roommate to rob the store early Tuesday.

Clerk Tyler R. Madden, 19, of Deerfield Township was charged with complicity to commit aggravated robbery and obstructing official business. His roomate, Zachary L. Roberts, 21, of Deerfield Township, was charged with aggravated robbery.

Deputies were dispatched at 4:42 a.m. to the store located in the 2600 block of U.S. 22/Ohio 3, where the clerk reported the store was robbed at knifepoint and the suspect had fled. No one was injured. Deputies recovered the stolen money and the knife.

The sheriff’s office said Madden admitted to informing Roberts about the store’s layout and a good time to conduct the robbery.

Posted in: Crime, Deerfield Twp., News |

Tags: Tags: clerk, crime, deerfield township, robbery, tyler madden, udf, united dairy farmers, warren county sheriffs, zachary roberts

Police say Mindy Messina, of Amelia, entered the Deerfield Township Waffle House on Dec. 17 and pretended to be an auditor for the company before robbing the store. Photo provided

A CrimeStoppers tip led to the arrest of an Amelia woman who reportedly robbed a Deerfield Township Waffle House this week after claiming to be an auditor for the company, the Warren County Sheriff’s Office said.

Mindy L. Messina. Photo/Warren County Sheriff’s Dept.

Mindy L. Messina, 37, has been charged with theft and booked in the Warren County Jail.

Messina allegedly entered the Waffle House at 9725 Mason-Montgomery Road in Deerfield Township at 2:45 a.m. Monday and told employees she was an “auditor” for the restaurant and began to inspect the premises, said Warren County Sheriff’s Sgt. Brandon Lacy.

Messina allegedly stayed in the restaurant for about 45 minutes before asking an employee to print out the evening’s sales and open the cash register. She then accessed the register, took cash and fled the store, according to police.

Tips from CrimeStoppers led police to Messina, who confessed to taking the money from the Waffle House, said Lacy. Messina also confessed to a similar offense at a convenience store in Elsmere, Ky., he said.

Charges have been filed in Mason Municipal Court on the Waffle House theft. Charges are pending in the Elsmere incident.

Posted in: Crime, Deerfield Twp., News |

Tags: Tags: auditor, deerfield township, fake, mindy messina, pretend, robbery, waffle house

Lashawn Daniels wrote poetry and aspired to work at P&G, say those who knew him. The Mason teenager died Dec. 10 while attempting to hold up a gas station armed with a BB gun. Photo/Facebook

As friends and family gathered Tuesday to say their final goodbyes to a Mason teenager shot to death during an attempted robbery, Mason Mayor David Nichols is left to grapple with the question of why.

Why did Lashawn Daniels, a 19-year-old college student with no criminal history, attempt to rob a Springfield Township convenience store Dec. 10 armed with a BB gun?

Why did the poetry-writing teenager, who’d overcome the odds simply to graduate high school, not take Nichols, whom he considered a mentor, up on his offer for help?

“We’re all asking, ‘What happened?  What did we miss here?’,” said Nichols.  “I will always wonder and question myself, ‘Was I quick enough?’  What if, what if, what if…  I have to answer that on my own.”

• Prosecutor: No charges in gas station shooting of Mason teen

Nichols vividly recalls the day he met Daniels in the spring of 2011 while visiting Mason High School.  Daniels, then a senior, approached him, firmly shook his hand and asked if he were the governor.

After a few chuckles, Daniels began telling the mayor the story of his life, a sad tale of a homeless teenager from a broken home, who lived with host families his senior year of high school, but who was determined to overcome the odds and land a dream job at Procter & Gamble, said Nichols.

“He said he was determined to break the chains of his family history,” said Nichols.

The pair struck up a correspondence that lasted until just weeks before Daniels’ death.  Nichols wrote letters of recommendation for the teen, who graduated in 2011, and invited him to attend city council meetings.

By most accounts, Daniels was on the path to success.  He worked two jobs during the summer, moved into his own apartment and enrolled at the University of Cincinnati – Blue Ash College, according to his friends and family.

“The young man seemed to be trying to overcome so many things,” said Nichols.  “He knew the odds were against him, but he was trying so hard to totally make it on his own.”

(more…)

Posted in: Community, Crime, News |

Tags: Tags: crime, david nichols, gas station, killed, lashawn daniels, mason, mason high school, mayor, robbery, shawn daniels, springfield township, sunoco

Police in Mason and Fairfield are still searching for a man who robbed two gas stations earlier this month.

According to police, a man entered the Thornton’s Oil Gas Station at 1030 Reading Road in Mason at around 5:15 a.m. June 8 and displayed a semi-automatic handgun. The suspect removed cash from the registers and fled the scene.

Prior to the Mason robbery, police say the same suspect robbed a Thornton’s Gas Station on Ohio 4 in Fairfield. No injuries were reported in the robberies. 

The suspect is described as a white male, about 5-foot-8-inches, and of slim build. He wore a dark hooded sweatshirt, mask and gloves.

Crimestoppers has released new video footage of the man, shown above.

Anyone with information on the suspect should call CrimeStoppers at 513-352-3040 or Detective Don Cope with the City of Mason Police Department at 513-229-8560.  All calls can be made anonymously and tipsters may be eligible for a cash reward.

Posted in: Crime, News |

Tags: Tags: armed robbery, crime, fairfield, gas station, mason, mason police, robbery, thorton's gas station, warren county communications

Police in Mason and Fairfield are searching for a man who robbed two gas stations early this morning.

According to police, a man entered the Thornton’s Oil Gas Station at 1030 Reading Road in Mason at around 5:15 a.m. Friday and displayed a semi-automatic handgun. The suspect removed cash from the registers and fled the scene.

Prior to the Mason robbery, police say the same suspect robbed a Thornton’s Gas Station on Ohio 4 in Fairfield.

The suspect is described as a white male, about 5-foot-8-inches, and of slim build. He wore a dark hooded sweatshirt, mask and gloves. No injuries were reported in the robberies.

Anyone with information is asked to call Detective Don Cope with the City of Mason Police Department at 513-229-8560 or call Warren County Communications at 513-925-2525 and request to speak with an officer.

Posted in: Crime, News |

Tags: Tags: armed robbery, crime, fairfield, gas station, mason, mason police, robbery, thorton's gas station, warren county communications

Stuart Vance, 39, was sentenced to eight years in prison on robbery charges in Warren County on Monday, April 2. He was nicknamed the "rush hour robber" by police for his tendency to rob banks during busy times, usually at the end of the workday. Photo/Warren County Jail

A Warren County judge sentenced the man dubbed by authorities as the “rush-hour robber” to eight years in prison Monday.

Warren County Common Pleas Judge Neal Bronson sentenced Stuart Vance, 39, on two counts of aggravated robbery, two counts of receiving stolen property and one count of attempted burglary for crimes committed four years ago in Warren County.

Vance was accused of robbing the People’s Community Bank at 8350 Arbor Square, Deerfield Township, on Sept. 12, 2008.

He also faced charges in the Oct. 7, 2008, robbery of a bank less than a half-mile away, the now-closed Mason branch of National City Bank on Mason-Montgomery Road.

Later that year, Vance attempted to enter a Mason home while a resident was inside.  When he was arrested in November 2008, police found blank checks and credit cards reported as missing from homes in Clearcreek Township in his possession.

The Clarksville man, already convicted of an Indiana burglary, pleaded guilty to the charges last month.  He was also ordered to make restitution to the banks.

Bronson ordered the sentence to run consecutive to the time Vance is currently serving in an Indiana prison for burglary.  Indiana prison records show that he was sentenced in 2009 to 12 years in prison for burglary, theft and receiving stolen property.

Vance was convicted of those charges in Shelby County, Ind., and is expected to complete his prison sentence in November 2014.

The “rush-hour robber” got his name because he had a tendency to rob banks during busy times, usually at the end of the workday. In most of the robberies, the suspect wore a dark business suit, dress shirt and tie.

Vance faces additional bank robbery charges in Hamilton and Montgomery counties and is a suspect in robberies in Louisiana and Mississippi, according to the Warren County Prosecutor’s office.

Posted in: Crime, News |

Tags: Tags: bank robbery, clarksville, crime, deerfield township, judge neal bronson, mason, national city bank, people's community bank, robbery, rush-hour robber, stuart vance, warren county, warren county common pleas

Photo: Warren County Jail

A Symmes Township woman has been indicted for robbery and escape on charges stemming from a Dec. 1 incident at the Kroger store in Deerfield Township.

Warren County prosecutors say that Loretta D. Foster, 29, was shoplifting a cart of groceries at the store on Terra Firma Drive off Mason-Montgomery Road when she bit a Kroger loss prevention officer while trying to flee the scene, raising the charge from theft to robbery.

Warren County sheriff’s deputies arrested Foster and detained her in the rear of a police car.  Police say Foster freed herself from the handcuffs and asked for the window to be rolled down, claiming to be ill.  She then escaped from the vehicle.

Foster appeared in Warren County Common Pleas Court Wednesday, where a judge set a bond of $50,000 in cash or bail bond.  She’s scheduled to be arraigned on the charges on Jan. 20.

Posted in: Crime, News |

Tags: Tags: deerfield township, deputies, escape, kroger, loretta d. foster, loretta foster, police, robbery, symmes township, warren county sheriff