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Robbers pointed gun at man’s face
Published 11:10am Wednesday, October 19, 2011The two men who allegedly robbed a man in Rothsay around midnight on Sept. 29 were charged in Otter Tail County on Friday. Their court records shed more light on what allegedly happened that day on the 100 block of East Main Avenue.
Matthew Robert Martin, 22, and Tramayne Colfred Williams, 29, were charged with first degree robbery. The two were tracked down after evidence connected them with a home invasion they’d allegedly committed the same night in Moorhead. Both men have Fergus Falls addresses on their court documents, but records show that Martin was living in Fargo until recently.
Sheriff’s deputies responded to the 100 block around 1 a.m., court records state. When they arrived, a man told them he had been watching a movie with some friends on the night of Sept. 28 and then left to go to a local truck stop. When he went outside, close to midnight, two men approached him, and one of them (allegedly Williams) pointed a handgun at his face and told him to keep quiet. He then pointed the gun at the back of the man’s head while Martin allegedly took a wallet with $260 in cash, ID, car keys and a cell phone from the man. The man also believed the two had rifled through his car and stole his iPod prior to him coming outside.
After the man was robbed, he was told to run north. After he believed the men were gone, he came back to the house where he had been watching a movie and used a friend’s cell phone to call the authorities.
During the sheriff’s office’s investigation of the case, investigators learned that two men, later identified as Martin and Williams, had allegedly been involved in a home invasion earlier in the evening on Sept. 28. The two allegedly burst into the Moorhead home and demanded money and marijuana, and Williams threatened the people in the home with a gun and made comments about killing them by drowning or lighting them on fire.
The two allegedly stole several items from the home and left the occupants wrapped in duct tape.
During that robbery, one of the victims identified Martin, court records state. When the victim of the Rothsay robbery was asked about Martin, he said he knew him but could not be sure if he was one of the people who’d robbed him.
However, law enforcement later received word that Martin was staying at a Days Inn in Mounds View. A traffic stop was performed on his car, and he and Williams were arrested. During and after the traffic stop, law enforcement found items that allegedly were taken from the man in Rothsay, including the iPod, which shows his name when turned on.
The two men are not currently in the Otter Tail County Jail, as they are involved in court cases in Clay County over the alleged home invasion.
