Suspect in ’17 armed robbery convicted

GOSHEN — One of two men arrested in connection with an armed robbery that happened seven years ago has been convicted after entering an admission.

Dwayne Perkins Jr., 25, received a total sentence of 18 years, with nine suspended, after pleading guilty to charges including armed robbery. He was one of two men accused of robbing a Goshen gas station at gunpoint in 2017.

Perkins pleaded guilty to the Level 3 felony in Elkhart County Circuit Court in September. He also pleaded guilty to a level 5 felony charge of carrying a handgun without a license and a level 6 intimidation charge in two unrelated cases.

On Thursday, he was sentenced to nine years in the Indiana Department of Corrections, with three years suspended, for the robbery charge and four years and two years suspended for the other two charges. Misdemeanor counts of trafficking in marijuana and resisting law enforcement were dismissed.

Perkins entered his plea on September 26 ahead of a jury trial set for October 21. She told Judge Michael Christofeno on Thursday that she wants the chance to be there for her children and support them in any way she can.

Perkins was arrested on robbery charges in December 2022, two years after the warrant was issued and after the arrest of his co-defendant, Adren Jefferson. Police said Perkins and Jefferson had been employed at the same fast-food restaurant.

The warrants were issued after DNA tests linked them to clothing found a short distance south of the gas station following the Jan. 12, 2017, robbery. The charge against Jefferson was dismissed on the state’s motion in March 2022.

According to court documents, Goshen police responded to the 7-Eleven at 2220 Elkhart Road for a report of an armed robbery. An employee said two men entered the store, held her at gunpoint and took cash from the register.

She said they were both black men, wearing all dark clothing and face coverings, and each had a gun in his hand. One man also had brown boots and a white face covering and was holding a yellow plastic bag, while the other was wearing purple and teal trainers and a blue guard.

Surveillance footage showed the incident and the thieves’ clothing the clerk described, police said.

A man dropped a silver revolver outside the store as he fled, which was recovered by officers. Directly south of the gas station, police also found an abandoned Saturn Vue with the engine running that had been reported stolen in Elkhart.

A K-9 unit conducted a pursuit of the suspects starting at the 7-Eleven, and police found two $1 bills along the route. They also saw footage from a resident’s security camera along the route that showed three people traveling in the general direction of the 7-Eleven moments after the robbery.

An hour after the robbery, police were notified of a vehicle theft at an address on Pringle Drive, about half a mile from the 7-Eleven. The vehicle was recovered at the intersection of Kansas and Nebraska.

Minutes after that call, an officer observed a man walking through a parking lot not far from the vehicle that was recovered. The man, later identified as Jefferson, was wearing brown boots that appeared similar to those worn by one of the robbery suspects.

He was taken to the Goshen Police Department for questioning. He claimed he spent the night at a woman’s apartment and was trying to return to Elkhart when police found him.

He had $60 in his possession, according to police.

Another hour after the carjacking, officers responded to a call about suspicious persons at an address on Pringle Drive. They found two men, including Perkins, in a laundry room.

Perkins was not wearing shoes and indicated he had left them at a woman’s apartment, according to police. The man with him said they were locked in the woman’s apartment and gave the officers the same name Jefferson gave.

Police later interviewed that woman, but she said no one had stayed at her apartment the night before.

Officers searched the laundry room and found a pair of black sweatpants in the dryer, a white plastic bag in the trash, and $65 in cash and a check payable to Perkins under the trash bag in the trash. They also say they found $75 in the soil of a potted plant.

Police said they found a blue shirt, hat and black glove in the yard of a Lynwood Drive address and a pair of purple and chartreuse Nike shoes at an Elkhart Road address that appeared similar to those worn by the other robbery suspect . Two days after the robbery, a gun was found about 500 meters from where the sneakers were.

The Indiana State Police Laboratory conducted DNA testing on some of the items found in connection with the case. The lab indicated that samples from the blue T-shirt likely came from Jefferson and another unknown individual, while samples from the sock hat likely came from Jefferson and two other unknown individuals, according to investigators.