DNA from cigarette butt led to Atmore man’s robbery arrest
By DON FLETCHER
News Staff Writer
Atmore resident Randy Eugene Weeks might have given up smoking by now. If so, he waited about six years too late to kick the habit.
Florida lawmen caught a big break in their investigations of a 2018 robbery and attempted robbery when state scientists found DNA of the 35-year-old Atmore man on a cigarette butt that was carelessly discarded at the scene of the first crime and recovered by lawmen.
Escambia County, Fla. authorities reported that Weeks, of a Jack Springs Road address, was taken into custody August 5. No details of the arrest were furnished, as far as where it took place and whether Weeks put up any resistance.
The local resident was identified early — in what started out as separate investigations — as the only suspect in the robbery of a dollar store and the attempted robbery of a grocery store. The incidents occurred along the same roadway, less than a half-hour apart, more than six years ago.
According to Escambia County (Fla.) Sheriff’s Office reports, on May 28, 2018, Weeks entered a Dollar General on Lillian Highway and asked if he could cash a check. When the DG clerk refused to convert the check to cash, Weeks reportedly told the employee he was “robbing the store.”
The shaken clerk removed the cash drawer from the register, and Weeks took all the cash from it before leaving. The clerk told ECSO investigators that Weeks did not show a weapon during the robbery, but placed his hands in his pocket and warned, “Don’t make the wrong move; you’ll lose your life.”
Before entering the store, Weeks apparently tossed away a partially smoked cigarette. Forensic specialists with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement were able to match DNA from the hastily discarded butt with the suspect’s, and a warrant was issued.
Sheriff’s investigators said the Atmore man made a feeble and unsuccessful attempt to rob a nearby Grocery Advantage about 20 minutes after the Dollar General robbery, resulting in issuance of a second warrant.
The grocery store clerk told ECSO detectives the suspect brought several items to the register, then brandished an open pocketknife and ordered the employee to give him all the money in the cash drawer.
The clerk said when the order to open the till was refused, Weeks “laughed and said he was playing, put the knife back in his pocket, paid for the items and left the store.”
The Atmore man remained in the Escambia County Jail in Pensacola Monday afternoon, August 12, under total bonds of $40,000 ($25,000 on the robbery charge, $15,000 on the charge of attempted robbery).
Jail records also show that sheriff’s offices in Baldwin County and Escambia County, Ala. have placed “holds” on Weeks, who has an August 30 court appearance scheduled on the Florida charges.