Affidavit: Robber had accomplice

BIG LAKE — Alaska State Troopers have arrested a second person for a robbery in which a motorist who stopped to help someone she thought was stuck in a ditch was relieved of her cash.

Details in an affidavit AST investigator Ronald Hayes filed in the case against the first arrestee, Phillip E. Moore, 26, indicate that the motorist robbed on Thanksgiving Day was far from a random hold-up.

According to Hayes’ affidavit, the robbery was reported at 6:41 p.m. It had apparently happened on Jenalee Court near North Shore Road. The victim was the one making the report and she agreed to sit down with troopers at their Pittman Road post.

The woman told troopers she was at home, about to leave for Black Friday sales at Wal-Mart. She got some money from her father. According to Hayes’ affidavit, 46-year-old Susan Ace, who has also been arrested in the case, was at the house when the victim got the cash.

Hayes’ affidavit states that the woman and Ace drove to buy cigarettes at a nearby gas station. The woman told troopers that after they got cigarettes, Ace asked if she could swing by the post office.

“(The woman) drove her to the post office, where she went in for what (the woman) described as a very long time and longer than she would think would take for someone to check their mail,” Hayes wrote.

She told troopers Ace was acting strange and was on the phone most of the time. She said at one point Ace described the car they were in to whoever she was talking with on the phone. After another errand — Ace apparently wanted to go back to the gas station to buy a magazine — they saw a vehicle in the middle of the road on Jenalee Court.

“The driver needed assistance getting his vehicle unstuck. After getting the vehicle unstuck, the driver pulled out a silver revolver and demanded (the woman) hand over her purse. At one point the robber put the gun directly to (her) head,” Hayes wrote. “(She) got her purse and handed it to the robber. The robber then turned to Ace and referred to her as ‘Susan’ and asked for her purse.”

The robber tried multiple times to get Ace’s purse and eventually just took off. The woman got the car’s license plate number, went home — which was just a couple houses from the robbery scene — and immediately called troopers.

The woman’s husband came home soon after and drove his wife to the trooper post. On the way, he quizzed Ace about the incident. According to troopers, her response was that the robber must have known her from her many years living in Big Lake. When they arrived at the post, Ace took off on foot, the husband told troopers, according to Hayes’ affidavit.

Hayes writes that eventually he went to talk to Ace and she let him go through her cell phone, where he found a phone number that eventually led him to Moore, who had borrowed the Saturn he had pretended to get stuck in the road.

Hayes eventually found Moore on Knollwood Drive, where no one answered the door. He eventually applied for a search warrant.

“After getting on the bull horn and announcing numerous times we had a search warrant, Moore came to the door and was taken into custody,” Hayes wrote.

In an interview with troopers, Moore denied any involvement, saying he’d borrowed the car that evening to go push his sister out of a ditch. According to court records, Moore faces robbery, assault and theft charges.

In a case filed Thursday, Ace faces the same charges, but jail records returned no results when searched for her name, meaning it’s possible she hasn’t been arrested yet. Moore, however, has been lodged at the Palmer Correctional Center.

Contact Andrew Wellner at Andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.