FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

8 INDICTMENTS OBTAINED AGAINST SUSPECT IN ROBBERY SPREE

San Antonio, Texas; January 28, 2009:

District Attorney Susan D. Reed’s office obtained eight indictments this morning from a Grand Jury against Courtney Newton, age 33, charging him with eight counts of Aggravated Robbery.

The charges arise from a series of similar fast food robberies happening throughout the city in 2008. The basic scheme was that a young male would enter an establishment and pretend to be a customer. When the employee began to assist the “customer,” he would then state, “this is a robbery” and take all employees and customers to the back area of the business. He would then order them to place their cell phones on the floor and unplug other phones. This scenario took place in each case. The description given by witnesses in several of the robberies matched and led detectives to develop Newton as a suspect.

Aggravated Robbery is a first degree felony that carries a range of punishment of 5-99 years or life in prison and up to a $10,000 fine.

The cases are pending in the 144th District Court before the honorable Judge Catherine Torres-Stahl. Trial dates have not been set.

For more information, contact Cliff Herberg, First Assistant District Attorney, at 210-335-2342.