A convicted felon accused with two other men of perpetrating a takeover robbery at a Moreno Valley cell phone store was charged Friday with armed robbery and other offenses.
Tyquone Lavelle Matthews, 18, was arrested Wednesday following a Riverside County sheriff’s investigation into the holdup last month at an outlet near the intersection of Alessandro and Perris boulevards.
Along with the robbery count, Matthews is charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm and a sentence-enhancing allegation of using a gun in the commission of a felony.
The probationer is being held in lieu of $105,000 bail at the Robert Presley Jail in Riverside and is slated to make his initial court appearance Friday afternoon at the Riverside Hall of Justice.
His two alleged cohorts, Assad Rah Evans and Courtney Nickolas Lewis, both 18, are each free on bond.
According to sheriff’s Sgt. Jeremy Harding, the trio allegedly stormed the phone shop on the evening of May 29, wearing masks and pulling pistols on employees, who were hustled into a back room and held at gunpoint while display cases and racks were cleared by the bandits.
After several minutes, Matthews and his accomplices fled the location, leaving in a vehicle parked behind the store, Harding alleged.
He said detectives quickly developed leads pointing to the three men as the alleged perpetrators.
Lewis was taken into custody hours later but posted a $135,000 bond and was released.
Evans was arrested three days later and posted an $85,000 bond to get out of jail.
It was unclear why it took nearly a month to locate and arrest Matthews.
According to court records, he pleaded guilty in March to possession of an assault weapon and was sentenced to three years probation.