(Stillwater, Okla.) — An ex-convict from Perkins — on 14 years’ probation for robbing three Stillwater businesses at knifepoint in 2012 — was charged today with using a silver knife to rob a clerk at Signature Loans at 119 N. Cleveland in Cushing on Tuesday.
Carmen Eldonna Richardson, 41, was arraigned this afternoon from the Payne County Jail where she was ordered held on $300,000 bail by Special District Judge Katherine Thomas.
Thirteen months ago, Richardson was given a one-year jail term followed by 14 years of probation for three Stillwater knifepoint robberies in 2012 — conditioned on her enrolling in and successfully completing the Payne County Drug Court program.
Since she was given credit for the time she had already served following her arrest in October 2012, Richardson had been released five months ago from the Payne County Jail in that sentence, court records show. In her first Stillwater hold-up at 1:03 p.m. Oct. 25, 2012, at EZ Payday Loans at 702 N. Perkins Road, she asked about a loan before brandishing a knife and receiving $92 in cash, a police affidavit said.
In her second Stillwater hold-up the same day at 9:43 p.m. at the Wyndham Garden Hotel at 600 E. McElroy, she asked if there were any vacancies before brandishing a knife and receiving $238, a police affidavit said.
The following day, Stillwater Police Detective Sgt. Jeff Watts reviewed security video from the hotel robbery and recognized the woman as the same suspect in the finance company robbery, the affidavit said.
Still images from the hotel robbery video were released to the media with a request for the public’s assistance in identifying the suspect, the affidavit said.
On the same day, the detective sergeant received a tip from a Stillwater restaurant manager that the suspect was a former employee named Carmen Richardson, the affidavit said.
The following day, Richardson was recognized as the robbery suspect when she entered Approved Cash Advance at 705 E. McElroy in Stillwater at 10:38 a.m. on Oct. 27, 2012, and asked about a loan before pulling out a knife, opening the cash register and taking $441, the affidavit said.
That employee said that Richardson made her go into a back room and when she came out, Richardson was gone, the affidavit said.
Before committing those three Stillwater robberies in 2012, Richardson had been released from prison 14 months earlier — after serving less than half of a five-year sentence for uttering a forged instrument in Payne County on which she was sentenced in 2009, state Department of Corrections records show.
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