- November 1, 2024
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Deputies have charged a Savannah, Georgia man in connection with the Aug. 11, 2018 robbery of the Kay Jewelers in Town Center.
Deputies identified the suspect, 25-year-old Tyrone Lamar Walker, as one half of the duo that entered the store during working hours and stole $21,794 in jewelry, according to a Flagler County Sheriff's Office news release.
When questioned by deputies, Walker "stated that he committed the crime because he is 'f---ed up out here in life,'" and then "stated that he 'ain't never did no s--- like this before,'" according an an FCSO charging affidavit.
The store's surveillance cameras captured the incident: Two men entered the store at about 7:20 p.m., when there were two employees present, but no customers. Neither man wore masks or gloves.
Each suspect spoke to a different employee, asking to see various items of jewelry. Then, off camera, one of the two men struggled with one of the employees to try to grab the keys to the display case, according to a charging affidavit. When that didn't work, he pulled a sledgehammer out of his pocket and hit the center display case until it broke.
He grabbed gold necklaces and a bracelet and ran out, dropping the hammer. But he cut himself reaching into the display case, leaving blood behind.
The employees noticed that he had a large spider tattoo on his neck. He also had a Southern drawl, a chipped front tooth and a tattoo on his arm with three letters: An employee wasn't sure if they read "GSA" or "GSB."
A Jewelers Security Alliance investigator found a Facebook photo of a man — Tyrone "Boosie" Walker — with a spider tattoo on his neck, and alerted the FCSO, which presented Walker's photo to the store employees in a photo lineup.
The photo was presented so as not to show the tattoo. One of the employees confidently identified Walker as the robber, but the other employee was indecisive and ultimately chose an uninvolved person.
Detectives asked the more confident employee if she could draw a picture of the neck tattoo and its placement. What she drew "mirrored the approximate size, appearance and placement of Tyrone Walkers' tattoo," according to the charging affidavit.
FCSO detectives contacted law enforcement in Georgia and found that Walker was already incarcerated in the Chatham County Jail for an unrelated charge.
FCSO Cpl. George Hristakopoulos and Detective Joe Costello traveled to Savannah to make contact with him.
They noticed that he had a southern drawl, a chipped front tooth, and a tattoo on his arm: The letters were "GSP."
Before admitting to the robbery, Walker lied about his involvement for an hour and 44 minutes, according tho the charging affidavit. And after his confession, he refused to identify his partner, saying, "You got to find out who my man is on your own."
Hristakopoulos asked him why he'd picked Palm Coast.
Walker replied, "It don’t be studied, it just be like, it’s just like if you do some s---, if you a criminal in the
street and you do this s---, you know what I’m sayin’... I mean you look it up. Look it up, Kay Jewelers.”
He said he'd already gotten rid of the jewelry.
Walker was swabbed for DNA, and his DNA matched the samples taken at the crime scene, according to the charging affidavit.
The FCSO has forwarded a charging affidavit to the State Attorney's Office charging Walker with armed robbery with a weapon (sledgehammer), grand theft over $20,000, and felony criminal mischief, for the damage caused to the Kay Jewelers display case.
The FCSO is seeking extradition once Walker's charges in Savannah are concluded, according to the news release.
Detectives are still working with the Savannah Police Department to identify the second suspect, according to the news release.
"This is another outstanding job by our detectives," Sheriff Rick Staly said in the news release. "Sometimes these cases take a while to solve but we continue to work them using every thread of evidence we have to build the case. We will not rest until his accomplice is also identified and arrested."
