CLEVELAND, Ohio – A Cleveland man with a lengthy criminal history is charged in an armed robbery at a cellphone store in the city’s Glenville neighborhood.
Romie D. Woodall, 49, is charged with aggravated robbery in a Feb. 2 incident at a Boost Mobile on Superior Avenue at Parkwood Drive, according to court records.
Detectives obtained a warrant for his arrest on Friday and arrested him Monday, court records say. His first appearance in Cleveland Municipal Court has not yet been scheduled.
Woodall is accused of “providing access” to the store and acting as a getaway driver for an unidentified man who robbed the store at gunpoint, court records say. Nearly $2,000 in cash and a box containing six Apple iPhone 6 cellphones was taken in the robbery.
Neither police reports nor court records specify if Woodall entered the store. A Cleveland police spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for more information.
A Boost Mobile employee was beginning to close the store just after 7:30 p.m. when a man walked in and asked to buy a phone. The man browsed the store for a few minutes before he said he’d changed his mind, according to a police report.
The employee was walking the man to the door when a second man ran up and pointed a handgun at the employee. He forced the employee back into the store and took cash from the register, the police report says.
The armed robber also went into a back storeroom and took a box containing the six iPhones.
Surveillance video showed that both robbers ran from the store and got into a beige Chevrolet Tahoe parked behind outside. The SUV appeared to have a Virginia license plate, police reports say.
Investigators have not said how they identified Woodall as a suspect in the armed robbery.
Woodall has a lengthy criminal history that includes more than two dozen convictions in cases stretching back to 1988. His prior convictions include aggravated burglary, receiving stolen property, theft and breaking and entering, according to Cuyahoga County court records.
In his most recent felony case from 2014, he was sentenced to two years’ probation after pleading guilty to attempted assault on a police officer and resisting arrest, court records say.
The Tahoe used in the robbery matched the description of an SUV connected to a similar robbery that occurred Jan. 26 at the same store, police reports say. No one has been charged in connection with the earlier robbery.
In that incident, a man came into the store just after 2:30 p.m. and asked to check out some iPhones. The man left the store just before a second man entered the store and pointed a gun at an employee.
The robber apologized to the employee, saying he needed to feed his family before he took $317 in cash and roughly 10 smartphones. He also forced the employee into a bathroom before he left the store, police reports say.
The two men left the area in a tan Chevrolet SUV, possibly a Suburban, which was driven by an unknown person.