Wichita men charged in Newton gas station robbery stole hundreds in cash, rolled coins
Federal prosecutors on Friday filed charges against three Wichita men accused of robbing a Newton gas station earlier this week.
Jeremiah Urias, 18; Rico Montes, 27; and Jorge Correa, 25 have been charged in a criminal complaint with robbing the EZ Trip convenience store at 100 S. Main, U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister said in a news release. Prosecutors say two of the men went into the store at about 5:40 a.m. Tuesday, carrying guns. One wearing a red hoodie pointed a handgun at the clerk and ordered her to turn over money.
The clerk told authorities “she was in fear for her life and believed the men were going to kill her,” an affidavit attached to the complaint says.
She gave the men “several hundred dollars in cash” and a locked box that contained rolled coins. The man in the red hoodie also stole money from a customer standing by the register, the affidavit says.
After the clerk complied and the man in the red hoodie left the store, the second robber stayed behind and demanded more cash. He had a military-style assault rifle and walked around the store firing several shots into the ceiling and into an ATM while he was waiting for the money, the affidavit says.
After he got about $400, he left. The men then fled in a dark-colored Honda.
Investigators used surveillance video to get the license plate numbers from the robbers’ getaway car and track them down, McAllister said. The Kansas Highway Patrol spotted the car about 45 minutes later, heading toward Salina.
Troopers tried to stop the car but the driver refused to pull over, the affidavit says.
Authorities arrested Urias, Montes and Correa in Salina after a high-speed chase with the Kansas Highway Patrol. Urias was driving, Montes was wearing a red hoodie and Correa was in the back seat with an assault rifle that matched the description of the one used in the EZ Trip robbery, according to the affidavit and McAllister’s news release.
Urias told authorities in an interview that Montes and Correa had asked him to stop at the convenience store “so they could get something,” the affidavit says. In the interview, he admitted to fleeing when the highway patrol tried to pull over the car.
If convicted, the men face up to 20 years in federal prison and up to a $250,000 fine.
This story was originally published February 7, 2020 at 12:06 PM.
