When Willie Lee Jackson entered a Dunkin' Donuts store in September, he'd have been far better off ordering a couple jelly doughnuts and a coffee latte. Instead, he displayed a gun and robbed the place, and now he's looking at five years to life in prison.
THE STORE'S at 6699-C Frontier Drive in Springfield. And last week in Fairfax County Circuit Court, Jackson, 24, of 4104 Monument Court, No. 303, in Fair Oaks, pleaded guilty to robbing it on Sept. 7.
Police Det. Paul Alexander provided details of the case against Jackson in an Oct. 5 affidavit for a warrant to search his home for the handgun used and the clothing worn by the robber during the crime. He wrote that the suspect was a black male who was wearing gray sweatpants, a white T-shirt and a black "dew rag" while robbing the business of its dough.
"Upon entering the store and going to the front counter, the suspect stated, 'You know what to do,'" wrote the detective. "And at the same time, [he] lifted up his T-shirt, displaying the grip of a handgun."
But the female clerk was too scared to comply with the robber's demands so, wrote Alexander, "The suspect tried to gain entry behind the counter, but the gate was locked. [He] then walked back to the front of the counter and again demanded the victim give him the money."
THIS TIME, she opened the cash register, placed its contents upon the counter and, wrote Alexander, "The suspect grabbed [it]." He then told the clerk to lie on the floor and not move. When she did, he fled with the cash — but the incident was recorded by a closed-circuit TV security system.
The detective noted that a confidential informant identified Jackson as the robber. This person was then directed by police to phone Jackson. Alexander wrote that, when the informant told Jackson his picture was on a wanted poster at the jail, Jackson replied, "You got to really know me to know who it is."
Furthermore, after police arrested and interviewed him, Oct. 4, wrote Alexander, "A closer inspection confirmed that the subject in the video was Jackson." And an Oct. 6 search of his condo yielded a pair of gray sweatpants, two white T-shirts and two bandanas — one black and one dark blue.
On Nov. 22 in General District Court, Judge Mark Simmons certified Jackson's robbery charge to the grand jury — which indicted him on Dec. 20. Jackson pleaded guilty a week later, last Monday, Dec. 27, before Circuit Court Judge Gaylord Finch. He's now slated for sentencing on Feb. 17.