DNA evidence solves another robbery

VICTORVILLE — It’s been more than three years since the owner of T&A Liquor was attacked, pistol-whipped, beaten with a bottle and left for dead.

His assailant was arrested Tuesday morning when a DNA hit revealed that Richard Wayne Johnson, 22, a self-admitted Insane Crip gang member was responsible for the brutal attack that left the unnamed victim with 92 stitches on his face, said Detective John Walsh of the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department Victorville station.

On Jan. 23, 2004, around 8:30 a.m. two men entered the store on Palmdale Road minutes after the owner opened his doors, Walsh said.

One man immediately jumped the counter and began beating the victim, while a second man emptied the cash register.

“He was hitting him in the head with this object that at first we couldn’t identify, but then it slips out of his hand and you can see it was a gun. He was pistol-whipping him,’ said Detective John Walsh of the Victorville station. “Then he picked up a bottle and kept beating him while the clerk is begging for his life. Eventually, he just played dead. It was a brutal robbery.”

When Johnson was beating the victim with the bottle, he somehow cut himself, investigators said, which is what led to his eventual arrest.

“They ran out through a field, and we followed a blood trail. There were drops of blood, maybe one every five feet, then we found clothing that they were throwing off as they ran,” Walsh said.

The trail led to the Newporter Apartments where they located a bloody glove and a blood-smeared handprint where the man jumped the fence, Walsh said.

Because following the blood trail was time-consuming, by the time detectives reached the apartment with blood on the door, no one was at there. Still, investigators packaged the blood samples and sent them off to the crime lab to get a DNA code for the robbery suspect.

Knowing that the statute of limitations on a felony — excluding rape or murder — is three years, Deputy District Attorney Rob Brown filed charges against a “John Doe” with the matching DNA code in October 2006.

That same month, Johnson was convicted for making terrorist threats and a DNA swab was taken when he was booked into jail, Walsh said.

Three weeks ago, the Department of Justice notified investigators of the match, and Johnson was arrested Tuesday morning on one count of armed robbery with a firearm, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon and one count of burglary, Walsh said. He is being held on $250,000 bail.

“For all the citizens that have been victimized, and in this case so violently, with science and DNA technology these criminals are slowly being brought to justice, even after several years have past,” said Detective John Wickum.

Based on the arrest, investigators believe they have identified the second suspect in the robbery and are to follow leads to arrest him as well, officials said.