Suspects arrested after holding police at bay
Batesville business robbed at gunpoint
Wanda English Burnett - Editor

A delivery man for Advance Auto Parts played a key part in catching two armed robbers that robbed the Batesville store last Thursday, March 9.

According to Detective Stan Holt of the Batesville Police Department, they were dispatched to the scene just before 8:00 a.m. on that day. The auto parts business is located in front of the Kroger store on 229 just inside Franklin County.

Det. Holt said a delivery guy showed up and noticed a white Crown Victoria with temporary license plates in the parking lot of the store. "It wasn't parked by the front door but at the opposite end of the parking lot," Holt said. When the delivery man entered the business, he found two employees - a man and woman - tied up by their hands and feet with wire. He immediately untied them and the female clerk called 911.

"The clerk and the delivery man's quick and concise actions were two things that made the capture of the armed robbers a quick thing," noted Det. Holt. He said the delivery man could give a good description of the car and the clerks gave good descriptions of the two black men who had assaulted them.

A dispatch was immediately sent out and a Harrison police officer just entering the Interstate saw the vehicle and began to pursue it, according to Holt. When a felony stop was made on the vehicle, the suspects stopped momentarily and then sped away on a high speed chase that lasted about 28 miles and ended at Golf Manor, east of Cincinnati.

According to Sheriff Simon L. Leis, Jr., of the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office, the officers chased the suspect vehicle in a pursuit that reached speeds in excess of 100 mph. He said the pursuit traveled eastbound on I-74 to Ronald Reagan Highway east to Hamilton Avenue south, to North Bend Road east, to Vine Street, to Seymour Avenue, to Langdon Farm, and ended in a crash at Golf Manor. No one was injured in the crash and both suspects immediately fled the scene with officers following in a foot pursuit.

Joachim Robinson, 23, of Cincinnati, was arrested just after he fled in a nearby backyard. He was the passenger in the vehicle. Sheriff Leis noted that a large sum of money was found on him. The suspect was taken to University Hospital to be examined for a possible medical condition, but officers note he was not injured in the crash. He was treated and released to deputies.

The driver, the second suspect in the Batesville armed robbery, Darnell L. Chivers, 26, also of Cincinnati, was later located by the Hamilton County Police Association SWAT team and arrested.

In the meantime, a third person, unrelated to the robbery, was arrested at the Ridge Acres Road apartment on outstanding warrants for probation violation out of Madison County, OH. That person, according to police was Reginald D. Ross, 35, of Dayton, OH.

Det. Holt noted that charges against Robinson and Chivers of Armed Robbery and Criminal Confinement have been filed from Franklin County. He did note that while the pair were being held in Hamilton County, OH, with charges pending there, Robinson bonded out on Friday morning before arrest warrants from Franklin County reached Hamilton County about midday. "It was a glitch in communication," noted Holt, who said while he is disappointed, it was simply a miscommunication in the way different departments do things.

Officers from the Batesville Police Department, Franklin County Sheriff's Department, Oldenburg Police and ISP responded to the scene last Thursday.

Det. Holt praised the employees of Advance Auto Parts saying, "they did exactly what they were supposed to do - comply with the robbers demands." He reiterated that the delivery man was also the "key person" in helping to get the suspects apprehended.