Topic: String of Armed Robberies, Remains free on bail?
started by: kid dyn-o-mite
Posted by kid dyn-o-mite on Apr. 10 2004,1:07 am
Hecimovich pleads guilty By Lee Bonorden/Austin Daily Herald
Bryn P. Hecimovich entered a plea of guilty Thursday to one count of felony first-degree aggravated robbery Thursday, and he may also be charged with additional crimes.
Hecimovich, 33 of Austin, appeared before District Court Judge Fred W. Wellmann, who took the plea under advisement and announced he will sentence Hecimovich on July 23, or nearly a year after the crime he is accused of committing.
Hecimovich was charged in connection with the Aug. 31, 2003, armed robbery of the Apollo III convenience store and gas station at 3010 W. Oakland Ave.
A man later identified as Hecimovich burst into the convenience store where a lone clerk, Randy Damon, was on duty.
The robber demanded money and took cash from a drawer and left the building.
However, Damon immediately left the building by another door. When the clerk got outside, he said he was eyeball-to-eyeball with Hecimovich, who was behind the wheel of the getaway car.
Damon called 9-1-1 and when Austin Police Department officers arrived, the clerk gave a description of the armed robber and the vehicle he was driving, as well as the direction the car traveled.
Police said Hecimovich was later captured along Mower County Highway 28, when he turned into a rural drive. He was held in the Mower County Jail under $40,000 bond until posting bail and being released on his own recognizance.
Hecimovich was never charged with more than one robbery. However his August 31, 2003 arrest ended a string of convenience store armed robberies in Austin.
Those robberies included: Aug. 25, 2003, Austin Liquor Store Drive Inn; Saturday, Aug. 10, 2003, Apollo III for the first time at 3010 West Oakland Ave.; Aug. 6, 2003, Budget Oil; Aug. 5, 2003, North Main Sinclair Station and Severson Food Plus Conoco (the Conoco robbery was later attributed to Braun Nathan Thompson); Aug. 3, 2003, North Main Sinclair Station.
In all of the robberies occurring in one month's time, the victims gave similar descriptions of the gun-toting holdup man. No shots were fired and no one was injured, according to police reports.
One of the victims said the robber said he was committing the crimes "because my wife has cancer."
The amount of money taken in the robberies was never revealed.
The reason the same robber was ruled out when investigating the Severson Conoco robbery was that he brandished a shotgun, according to police reports.
Braun Nathan Thompson was later captured in Iowa and went on trial for federal gun possession charges as a convicted felon.
Thompson's method of operation in the robberies he is alleged to have committed matched that of robbers in Austin, Wykoff and Rochester, authorities told reporters.
However, Thompson was never charged in Minnesota for any of those crimes.
Apollo III store clerk Damon, 64, was credited by Austin Police Chief Paul Philipp with providing the break authorities needed to crack the skein of armed robberies.
"He was able to give us a good physical description, both of the individual involved in the armed robbery and also a good description of the vehicle and the direction of travel which is something we had been lacking in the past," the police chief said after Hecimovich's arrest.
Thursday's hearing was abruptly moved up to 1:30 p.m. from the publicly announced 4 p.m. time the district court had set aside.
Mower County Attorney Patrick Flanagan would only say, "there could be additional charges filed" before the July 23 sentencing.
Hecimovich remains free on bail.
Posted by Nose for News on Apr. 10 2004,10:12 am
Armed Robbery is less serious than the crimes below? Who else is walking the streets of Austin?Couldn't a minimum security (huber) facility could solve the problem ? ( They can be 60 bunk beds in any vacant building)
Wouldn't that free up maximum security beds?
Oh that's right the architech won't recomend that.
Thursday, October 30, 2003
News
Prisoners in jail continue to exceed capacity
By Lee Bonorden/Austin Daily Herald
Who's in the Mower County Jail? It's a logical question to ask, given the attention to jail issues.
Mower County Jail Administrator Robert Roche has the answer: more felony crime offenders.
Roche and his jail detention officers have the responsibility of supervising the incarceration of prisoners in the county jail...
...The number of prisoners changes frequently, but the jail administrator tallied the prisoners held on a recent day for an overview of one aspect of the county's jail over-crowding dilemma...
...Oct. 22, Mower County was housing 54 total prisoners.
There were 41 incarcerated in the Mower County Jail and another 13 -- the maximum number of beds allowed -- incarcerated in Osage, Iowa.
The prisoners included:
n Assault (11) : 3 misdemeanors, 2 gross misdemeanors, 6 felonies.
-- Burglary (1): felony.
-- Criminal Sexual Conduct (8): all felony crimes.
-- DUI (17): 3 misdemeanor, 12 gross misdemeanor, 2 felony.
-- Drug crimes (14): 1 gross misdemeanor, 13 felony crimes.
-- Fraud (1): felony.
-- Motor vehicle theft (1): felony.
-- Weapons (1): felony.
Posted by kid dyn-o-mite on Apr. 10 2004,12:31 pm
Yep, about 60% for alcohol and drug crimes, yet armed robbers and guys who smash pipes on pizza delivery boys heads are free on bond. Friends, this is what your drug war wrought. --Couldn't a minimum security (huber) facility could solve the problem ? ( They can be 60 bunk beds in any vacant building)
Wouldn't that free up maximum security beds?---
This is precisely what Mason City, IA did after Cerro Gordo county turned down a 12 million dollar jail bond. It cost under 1 million and solved the overcrowding .
Both Albert Lea and Austin have insisted that massive jail complexes are necessary because of meth. They're using the drug war as an excuse to overbuild. You agree to give up your hard earned cash because you've been conditioned to the drug war for over 20 years now. DARE done threw a SCARE it seems.
Posted by Truth on Apr. 12 2004,3:48 pm
Bond......BONDHow many dopers have money to post BOND......BOND
BOND!!!! kiddo.
Posted by Mamma on Apr. 13 2004,7:52 am
So was Hecimovich armed?
Posted by Mamma on Apr. 13 2004,8:12 am
So was Hecimovich armed?
Posted by kid dyn-o-mite on Apr. 13 2004,3:42 pm
Yes
Posted by kid dyn-o-mite on Apr. 13 2004,3:45 pm
Yes. It should be noted however, that his father is a well respected teacher or something in Austin. He's free on bond, yet 60% of the current inmates in that snapshot were drug crimes(alcohol included).See, it's not about crime. It's about providing lavish new digs for public workers and such.
Posted by Mamma on Apr. 13 2004,3:49 pm
Do you read the court records in the Albert Lea Tribune? It looks like the alcohol impaired drivers fare worse than the pot smokers or meth people. Well, unless they are selling and manufacturing.
Posted by kid dyn-o-mite on Apr. 13 2004,4:38 pm
So, I guess no one's ever informed you that alcohol is a toxic drug? 
Posted by Mamma on Apr. 13 2004,9:07 pm
I think even you ....no..I take that back. Most people do not consider alcohol a "drug". I do not consider you "most" people. I know you are on a mission so once again we are on the drug subject. This guy that did all the robberies does have a wife suffering from cancer. He is about as dangerous as my golden retriever. Let the courts take care of him and don't worry your little pointy head about it.
Posted by MrTarzan on Apr. 13 2004,9:55 pm
Oh Mama, what you said. Does your golden retriever use weapons to rob people? You ever been robbed? I have, you don't forget it. You must have a bad a$$ golden retriever.
Posted by kid dyn-o-mite on Apr. 13 2004,9:57 pm
" Most people do not consider alcohol a "drug". "Absolute bullcrap. The overwhelming majority know this. That statement is very telling though. It shows how far off you are on your own sense of reality. This is 2004, not 1964. Somewhere along the line, reality and your thought process split.