Trial underway in Northpark Mall parking lot robbery case
Oct. 20—The trial of one of two men charged in a Northpark Mall parking lot robbery a year ago began Tuesday with the defendant's attorney claiming what actually happened was a botched sale of medical marijuana, not a robbery.
Khamarion D. Smith, 20, of Danville, Illinois, is facing counts of first-degree robbery, armed criminal action and resisting arrest in the Jasper County Circuit Court trial.
Smith, co-defendant Terrence T. Tinsley Jr., 25, of Joplin, and a male juvenile were chased down by police and detained after an armed robbery of Marie Aparicio and her fiancee, Terrel Oatts, on Nov. 30, 2020, in the parking lot outside Dunham's Sports store at the mall on North Range Line Road in Joplin.
Oatts and Aparicio testified Tuesday that they went to Dunham's Sports to buy Christmas gifts for their daughter and had just pulled into a parking space when they were robbed of Aparicio's wallet.
Aparicio said initially Tinsley and a female slid into the back seat of their car armed with guns. But the female got nervous, she said, and got back out. A male juvenile who was with them took her place armed with a gun that he put to the back of Oatts' head while Tinsley pointed his gun at Aparicio.
"At the time, did you know who any of these individuals were?" Assistant Prosecutor Taylor Haas asked Oatts.
"No, I did not," Oatts said.
Aparicio similarly denied knowing any of them. She said that when she felt Tinsley's gun at the side of her head, she brushed it away, and Oatts reached over and did the same, trying to keep the gun pointed away from her.
Oatts said the juvenile ordered him out of the vehicle, and he stepped out and was met by Smith at the door of vehicle. Smith pushed him up against the car and started going through his pockets while the juvenile held him at gunpoint, he said.
In the meantime, Aparicio was scuffling with Tinsley inside the car, first for control of her car keys and then her wallet, which came flying out of the car and landed on the pavement near Oatts, prompting the juvenile to warn him, "You touch that, I'll kill you," Oatts testified.
Aparicio's tussle with Tinsley intensified inside the car as she climbed into the back seat and began hitting him with a Bluetooth speaker.
They said the suspects then grabbed her wallet and fled in their car with their female companion. Oatts took their own car and followed them out of the lot and north on Range Line Road while calling police and providing them a description of the fleeing Ford Fusion. But he lost them when they pulled in behind the Parkwood Senior Apartments.
Police Capt. Trevor Duncan, however, spotted the vehicle moments later back on Range Line Road and gave chase to a point near Zora Street and Myrtle Avenue where two males bailed out of the vehicle and fled on foot.
Assistant Prosecutor Michael Schaefer called as witnesses three other Joplin police officers involved in the tracking down and capturing of the suspects, and recovery of the guns each of the three male suspects are believed to have used.
The state rested its case after the testimonies of those officers, and the judge sent the jury home for the night, with the defense to begin presenting its case at 9 a.m. Wednesday.
Defense attorney Joseph Collier told jurors during opening statements that one of the guns — the one police believe had been in Smith's possession — was not recovered until a couple of days after Smith's arrest when a homeowner in the area found it. It was old and rusty and did not match any gun described by the victims, Collier said.
Oatts acknowledged under cross-examination by Collier that he did not see Smith with a gun. He said he saw only the guns the other two males were carrying.
Collier also told jurors during opening statements that there were two boxes of medical marijuana recovered along the flight path of the suspects. He said his client was on the way to the bus station with his cousin, the woman who was in the car with them, when she arranged to buy some marijuana from someone who was to meet them in the parking lot at the mall.
The defense attorney told the jury, and elicited an acknowledgement from Oatts on the witness stand, that Oatts has an Oklahoma medical marijuana card. The defense attorney suggested during opening statements that Oatts had agreed to meet his client and his cousin in the parking lot to sell them some medical marijuana.
But Collier did not pose that question directly to Oatts on cross-examination.
