(Stillwater, Okla.) — A Payne County jury deliberated about five hours today before convicting a 25-year-old Stillwater man of committing three armed robberies at Stillwater businesses last year, while wearing disguises. It acquitted him of a fourth armed robbery.
The jury of nine men and three women recommended prison sentences totaling 65 years — 20 years for a Check N Go hold-up on May 17, 2013, 20 years for an OnCue hold-up on May 1, 2013, and 25 years for a Great Wall Chinese Restaurant hold-up on April 18, 2013. It returned a not guilty verdict on a Feb. 1, 2013, hold-up at Approved Cash Advance.
District Judge Phillip Corley scheduled sentencing on June 13 for Jackson Pascal Rwezaula, who remains jailed, court officials said. The judge ordered a pre-sentencing investigation by the state Department of Corrections.
Jackson Pascal Rwezaula, a native of Tanzania who grew up in Stillwater, was arrested at his residence on May 21, 2013, four days after the last robbery, Stillwater Police Detective Cody Manuel wrote in an affidavit.
During her closing argument today, Assistant District Attorney Karen Dixon urged jurors to find Rwezaula guilty on all four counts, each of which carries a minimum five-year prison term..
“The (maximum) penalty is life imprisonment. I suggest that’s what this case calls for — certainly not less than 50 years,” Dixon told the panel composed of nine men and three women.
Calling the robber’s behavior escalating, Dixon said that the last one, on May 17, 2013, at Check N Go was “the worst, pretty bold, pretty aggressive, pretty menacing, pretty violent.
The female clerk “thought she was going to die. He’s masked, he’s armed. He’s daring police to find him,” Dixon said.
After a clear image of the robber’s face was captured on surveillance video, police distributed it throughout the community on flyers and by traditional and social media, the affidavit said.
Telling the jury that Rwezaula then changed his appearance, Dixon said “He bought a razor, shaved his mustache, shaved his head.
“Why do you think he took his Facebook page down? He didn’t want people comparing his photographs,” she told the jury.
Emphasizing that the defendant’s DNA was found on evidence, Dixon told the jury, “We didn’t plant DNA — it was what it was.”
During her closing argument today, the defendant’s court-appointed attorney Jodie Gage said, “Law enforcement decided a long time ago that Jackson Rwezaula was the guy.
“Jackson Rwezaula’s DNA is on three different masks. The lab can’t say how it came to be on these. There are other contributors on the DNA. We don’t know who else’s DNA is on them.
“Jackson Rwezaula’s DNA is on evidence from each robbery. How did this DNA come to be on these items — I don’t know,” the defense attorney said.
Before the defense rested its case last Friday, Gage had called Rwezaula to the witness stand to try on two masks, which police had confiscated.
Rwezaula indicated that neither one fit him properly — to which Assistant District Attorney Debra Vincent told him, “This mask had DNA profile that matched you.”
His defense attorney told the jury during her closing argument today, “Yes, we did a demonstration where he attempted to try on this gray mask which didn’t go over his head.
“Jackson also modeled this (brown) mask. Jackson matched one eye up,” but was unable to match the other eye, she said.
If a person makes a mask, “Aren’t they going to make sure the eyeholes match their eyes so they can see,” the defense attorney told the jury.
“You’ve been provided identification (of the defendant as the person in the Check N Go robbery surveillance video) by four so-called friends of Jackson,” the defense attorney said.
“The state wants you to believe Jackson Rwezaula changed his appearance,” after the robber’s surveillance photo was released, Gage noted.
“Was Jackson Rwezaula acting like a person trying to hide? He was out partying at the bars. He’s posting pictures to his Facebook account,” Gage said.
Reminding the jury of the evidence presented against the defendant at the trial, Vincent said “We had 40 witnesses — we had twice that many exhibits.
“Three of the robberies happened on video,” on May 17, 2013, at Check N Go; on May 1, 2013, at On-Cue; and on Feb. 1, 2013, at Approved Cash Advance, Vincent noted. Only the April 18, 2013, robbery at Great Wall Chinese Restaurant was not on video, she noted.
Holding a surveillance video picture of the robber, Vincent asked “How much more evidence could we give you?This was Jackson Rwezaula. That’s one robbery.”
Saying the hold-ups had a common scheme, Vincent said in each robbery, the suspect was wearing a disguise while carrying a small black handgun and demanding car keys or a cell phone in addition to money.
“There was only one robber — Jackson Rwezaula,” Vincent told the jury today.
