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Suspected jewel thief in jail
Published January 27, 2005
LAKE JACKSON — Police have charged a former Rice University football player in connection with the theft of $9,200 in jewelry from a Brazos Mall store this month, and suspect he could be connected to a theft at the same store last September.
Houston police arrested Robert Marcus Holmes, 23, on Friday after he was identified as a man on surveillance camera images taking jewelry from stores in Harris, Fort Bend, Galveston and Montgomery counties, reports show.
Lake Jackson police charged Holmes with felony theft after a store employee identified his photo, Lake Jackson Police Detective Sgt. Diane Cary-Cisneros said. They also are investigating whether Holmes was responsible for a theft at the same store last September in which $15,000 in jewelry was taken.
“I pulled in my witness and showed her a photo spread, and she went right to him without any hesitation,” she said.
Holmes, a Clear Lake native, was being held Wednesday in the Harris County jail on three theft charges and bonds totaling $74,000, reports show. His Harris County arraignment is scheduled for Monday.
Holmes’ bond is set at $50,000 in Brazoria County, Cary-Cisneros said.
Cary-Cisneros said the pattern of the other Houston-area thefts made Holmes a suspect. In all of the thefts, the thief was well-dressed and posed as a customer, snatching jewelry after it was removed from its case. There was no weapon used in the Lake Jackson theft, she said.
“He’s got three pending cases and it looks like they’ve made another case on him in the Sugar Land area,” Cary-Cisneros said.
Authorities say a man, whom the clerk identified as Holmes, entered a Brazos Mall jewelry store about 11 a.m. Jan. 6 and told the clerk he wanted to look at platinum-setting rings with two-karat diamonds, reports show.
The clerk told the man the store did not have the rings he wanted. While she was opening the display case to show the man the rings the store carried, he grabbed a ring from her hand and reached over the counter to grab another out of the case, reports show.
“The difference between ours and the ones in Houston is that he left a diamond ring at our store,” Cary-Cisneros said. “He tossed an envelope at the salesgirl and said, ‘Here, keep this.’”
Cary-Cisneros said Holmes also is suspected of visiting another store in the mall that day, where he was caught on video. Holmes has no known family connections in the area, but might have known a Brazoswood High School student at one time, she said.
Cary-Cisneros met with Holmes briefly Wednesday before he asked to speak with his attorney before speaking further with her.
Houston police got a confession from him on video that contains some information about the Lake Jackson thefts, Cary-Cisneros said.
“He basically said that he had been down to Lake Jackson, and admitted it in a roundabout way,” she said. “To my knowledge, he doesn’t have a (prior) criminal record.”
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