Three felony charges were dropped against a 22-year-old man accused of stealing $2,100 of clothing from Polo Ralph Lauren in Williamsburg Premium Outlets after a sales associate was unable to identify him.
Williamsburg-James City County Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Michael Gaten said the store’s sales associate was unable to match Gary Lee Drew’s mug shot to surveillance videos of the incident.
He said after the associate watched the video, she determined the incident had occurred in the children’s section of the store, but video surveillance of the children’s section of the store did not show any suspicious activity at the time.
A similar situation happened in the case of alleged co-conspirator Roman Jevonte Celestand. Charges against Celestand were dropped in October after a sales associate was unable to identify him in a photo lineup.
Celestand was arrested July 18 in connection with the incident. Police said he, Drew and 21-year-old Jordan Douglas used a “Grip Snip,” or wire cutters, to cut sensors off clothing, then stuffed the clothes into shopping bags before walking out of the store.
Maj. Steve Rubino of the James City County Police Department said witnesses observed the men getting into a rented silver Hyundai, which police discovered had been rented from Enterprise Rent-a-Car in Norfolk.
Investigators waited at the Enterprise Rent-A-Car at the time and date the rental was to be returned, then questioned the subjects in the vehicle when they appeared.
Drew was arrested during the questioning July 27. Warrants are still out for Douglas, charging him with one felony count of grand larceny, one felony count of conspiracy to commit grand larceny and one felony count of possession of burglary tools.
Related Coverage:
