Teens held in night rampage

Hillsborough and Tampa investigators say the youths robbed businesses and carjacked motorists.

By JOSH ZIMMER

© St. Petersburg Times,
published July 23, 2001

TAMPA -- Standing four feet from a shotgun-wielding teenager, Hungry Howie's clerk Jennifer Baker ran into the store office and huddled with a co-worker shortly before 1 a.m. Sunday.

Moments later, she heard gunshots. Owner David Ford had wounded a 16-year-old who stood at the door while his armed accomplice, also 16, threatened employees.

"I didn't know what happened," she said Sunday while working at the same Hungry Howie's. "I just know I was hyperventilating."

According to Tampa police and Hillsborough sheriff's officials, the shooting ended a 21/2-hour rampage involving three armed carjackings, two or three business robbery attempts and several frightened victims. One carjacking victim, 25-year-old Jacob Plummer of Blanton, was in serious but stable condition late Sunday at Tampa General Hospital after a teen hit him in the head with a rock.

Two 16-year-olds -- Maurice Thomas of 8203 N Klondyke, Apt. B, and Marcus Stewart, address unknown -- face felony charges in the Hungry Howie's robbery attempt and other incidents in the rampage. It was Stewart who was shot.

Thomas is charged in Tampa with two armed carjackings, one armed robbery and one aggravated battery for allegedly throwing the rock at Plummer. The Sheriff's Office charged Thomas with one count each of armed carjacking and armed robbery.

Stewart was shot twice in the side during the Hungry Howie's holdup, but was released into police custody after being treated at St. Joseph's Hospital. Stewart, wanted on a failure to appear warrant related to prior robbery charges, faces the same charges, except for aggravated battery.

An investigation is continuing, Tampa police spokeswoman Katie Hughes said. Victims in some of the incidents told police that Thomas and Stewart were not acting alone. In addition, police are checking whether the pair had any connection to a string of carjackings last week, she said.

"It's too soon for them to tell," Hughes said. "And the likelihood is there are other suspects involved with this, but (we) have only two."

The crimes began at 10:35 p.m. Saturday.

After seeing two teens running along the sidewalk at Florida and Oak avenues, Plummer was hit by the rock as he turned north on Florida Avenue. Officials say Stewart ran to the passenger side, brandished a 9mm handgun and ordered the passenger, Patricia Corvert of Dade City, out of the car. One of the teens pulled an unconscious Plummer out of the vehicle, police said, and the teens took the car and fled north.

The pair moved east, committing an armed carjacking 50 minutes later at a McDonald's on Dr.Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard near Interstate 4, officials said. The victim was sitting in his red 1997 Chevrolet S-10 pickup when he was approached by three youths. Police later found his wrecked car west of I-275 off Hillsborough.

Shortly before midnight, Thomas and Stewart threatened a Red Roof Inn employee on U.S. 301 with a gun after she refused to buzz them into the building, officials said.

The pair drove back to Tampa, where they were involved in an attack on a mother and her teenage children at the Haven Hotel on Nebraska Avenue about 12:40 a.m., officials said.

Doreen Denver, 38, was dropping off her 19-year-old son, Sean Hrehor, and 13-year-old daughter, Daniella Denver, when a car approached from behind with its high beams on. She had just gotten out of the car when one of the suspects pointed a shotgun at her. Another suspect pointed a gun at the daughter, demanding her purse. Thomas and Stewart left after stealing her maroon 1993 Chevrolet Lumina, police said.

The last two incidents occurred about a half-mile away. In the first one, police suspect Thomas and Stewart tried to rob the Antigua Hotel on E Hillsborough Avenue, where an elderly clerk was attacked. However, the teens have not been charged in this case because police are waiting to interview the clerk.

A teenager stuck a gun through the slot of the service window, police said. The victim, 82-year-old Natverbhai Patel, tried to escape into an adjacent office but the teens entered the room by breaking down a large plate glass. They fled after a frightened Patel collapsed in a chair, police said.

A motel employee said Patel was doing better late Sunday.

Just before 1 a.m., the pair arrived at the Hungry Howie's. Baker said she buzzed in one of the teenagers -- identified by police as Stewart -- who kept it open for Thomas, who was holding the shotgun. "All I see is this skinny, little guy," she said. "He was mumbling something, but I couldn't really hear him because he had a shirt over his month. I had this gun like four feet away from me. I'm like, 'Oh my God.' I ran before anything was done."

Ford, the owner, could see the holdup unravel while doing inventory in the back, Baker said. As Baker ran, Ford told her to hide in the office. She heard shots.

Police say Ford acted in self-defense and have no plans to charge him.

Despite the scary experience, Baker does not plan to quit her job.

"These people," she said, "are not going to intimidate me."

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