McDonald County deputies responded to a reported armed robbery at the Booneslick Lodge in rural Jane in the early hours of Thursday, Jan. 31.
Upon arrival, deputies made contact with a hotel employee who said that the robbery suspect had fled the scene on foot.
According to witness statements, at approximately 3:30 a.m., while the clerk was away from the front desk, a man broke into the hotel's cash register, removed all available cash and fled on foot.
One witness said the man returned to the lobby a few minutes after fleeing and gave the witness a note stating he had a gun and demanding the keys to a car. After a brief altercation, the man again fled on foot.
Once the crime scene was secured, MCSO deputies began searching the surrounding area. They later located a white male, matching the man's description at the nearby Walmart. He did not have identification and allegedly provided deputies with false information.
He was transported to the McDonald County Detention Center and later identified through fingerprint-scanning as 38-year-old Samuel Eugene Young of Fort Smith, Ark.
Young later confessed to detectives that he was responsible for another burglary at the Booneslick Lodge two weeks prior.
He is currently being held at the McDonald County Detention Center in connection with a parole violation warrant out of Arkansas as well as a new charge of first-degree burglary. Sheriff Michael Hall said further charges are pending.
No injuries were reported in connection with the incident.
General News on 02/14/2019