ATM robbery suspect charged after guards kill accomplice
CLAYTON, Mo. (AP) —
An ATM robbery suspect has been charged with second-degree murder after two guards fatally shot an accomplice in suburban St. Louis as the would-be robbers awaited sentencing in another attempted ATM heist.
Decarlo Powell, 21, of Florissant, Missouri, is jailed without bond in the attempted Jan. 7 holdup in which 19-year-old Jordan Pruitt, of St. Louis, was killed. Powell also was charged Saturday with robbery, assault and three counts of armed criminal action.
Powell was just three days and Pruitt three weeks away from being sentenced in a December 2017 attempt to rob workers servicing an ATM when they tried the similar holdup, the probable cause statement said. Gunfire erupted, and both guards who were servicing the ATM in north St. Louis County returned fire, killing Pruitt.
Powell, who was armed with a .40-caliber rifle, then ran to a getaway vehicle and continued to fire at workers before fleeing, the statement said, and he was identified by video surveillance and DNA evidence.
Powell's attorney in the original case, Jermaine Wooten, didn't immediately return a phone message. No attorney is listed for him in the latest case.
Powell and Pruitt had been freed last year after their bonds in the initial robbery attempt were reduced over the objections of prosecutors.
