Palmer McDonald’s robbed, pair of suspects in custody

PALMER — Three people were arrested Tuesday after the Palmer McDonald’s restaurant was robbed and its safe emptied.

Zachary Morgan Leopold, 27, was arraigned Wednesday at the Palmer Courthouse on three counts of felony armed robbery with a deadly weapon, three counts of felony assault with a weapon, one count of felony burglary with a fire arm, a felony theft charge, a felony destruction of evidence charge and two class A misdemeanor counts of third degree theft.

Also arrested were Jessica Skaggs, 30, and Melissa Foy, 30. Skaggs is charged with one felony count of destruction of evidence. As of Thursday afternoon, charges initially brought against Foy had been dropped, according to court records, and she’d been released, according to jail records.

All told, it took less than 10 hours of very intense investigation after the robbery for police — and a tip from an anonymous caller — to make the arrests.

“The officers worked very, very hard at it, and that’s pretty typical for the way they respond to these types of major cases,” said Cmdr. Lance Ketterling with the Palmer Police Department.

Jumping on this kind of case quickly gives suspects less time to dispose of evidence, leave the state, or cause more trouble, he said.

“There’s nothing that says that if they get away with one they won’t commit more,” Ketterling said. “The less time they’re out there in the breeze the better for everyone.”

Details of the robbery come from an affidavit filed Wednesday in the case by Palmer Police Officer Jason Crockett.

Crockett said he was called to respond to a report of a robbery 4:15 a.m. On his way there, he said dispatch contacted him to say three employees at the restaurant had fled the scene and were at the apartment of Elizabeth Conway, a manager who lives near the store.

Dispatch also provided a description of the suspect as “a male wearing a green Carhartt-type jacket, black pants, black boots and had a bandana over his face.”

In his affidavit, Crockett identifies the McDonald’s employees working during the robbery as MacKinzie Ann Hutchings, Christeena Solomon and Jonna O’Hearn.

Hutchings told Crockett she was flipping the drive-through menu sign from the dinner menu to the breakfast menu when she heard footsteps running up behind her. The drive through at the Palmer McDonald’s is open 24 hours.

At first, Hutchings said she thought it was a co-worker who jogs to work in the morning. Instead, a man later identified as Zachary Morgan Leopold, 27, confronted her. He had his hand in his pocket and indicated he had a weapon. She said he told her repeatedly to cooperate and she wouldn’t be hurt.

Next Leopold asked Hutchings which door she’d come out and ordered her to go back into the store through that door. Hutchings told Crockett she froze from shock and Leopold got very demanding.

“He pointed his pocket at her and told her if she cooperated she would not be hurt,” the affidavit said.

Hutchings walked into the restaurant with Leopold following her. When the two reached the front counter, Hutchings yelled to Solomon and O’Hearn that they were being robbed and to put their hands in the air.

Leopold pointed his pocket at them and ordered the three into the office before asking which of them could open the safe. He told them not to look at his face, to look down.

Solomon said she could open the safe. So Leopold ordered her to take the money from the safe and put it into a black zippered bag he brought with him. After the money was removed from the safe, the affidavit says Leopold asked if there was more money in the store and Solomon told him the drive-through till had money, too. He then instructed her to empty it into the bag, too.

Afterward, he ordered the three into the McDonald’s break room and took Hutching’s and O’Hearn’s cellphones, and the store’s two cordless phones.

Before fleeing the scene on foot, Leopold told the three to stay put for 10 minutes before coming out. He said if they didn’t wait 10 minutes, he’d get their families information off their cellphones and hurt their families.

A McDonald’s manager, Conway said $2,009.04 was stolen from the safe and tills, according to the affidavit. The estimated cost of replacing the cellphones exceeds $50, which racked up that pair of misdemeanor theft charges for Leopold.

Law enforcement caught a break around 12:30 p.m., May 29 when Palmer police Officer Donna Anthony received an anonymous tip that a male named Zachary had robbed McDonald’s of about $2,500 and that he and two woman were staying in Wasilla at the Grand View Inn in room 117.

Ketterling said he couldn’t say much about the help from the public except that it was instrumental in cracking the case.

“We get an awful lot of cooperation from citizens on these kinds of things,” Ketterling said. “Part of that is a result of the ties that officers have built with community members over the years.”

He said robberies are a rarity in Palmer and he could come up with just a few off the top of his head, though a date of the last one escaped him.

“They happen enough that the officers are skilled in investigating them, but they’re not certainly a common thing in Palmer. That’s absolutely true,” Ketterling said.

A cook at the Grand View Inn reported seeing a male and a female discard black boots and a plastic grocery bag in the Dumpster near the kitchen, the affidavit says. Officer Anthony called the Grand View Inn and confirmed that Leopold was registered as a guest there and that he’d registered a purple Grand Am Pontiac at the hotel.

As Investigator Dwayne Shelton was responding to the Grand View Inn to provide surveillance of room 117, he saw the purple Pontiac leaving the parking lot, according to Crockett’s affidavit.

Alaska State Troopers Sgt. Michelyn Manrique also responded to the Grand View an d observed a pair of black boots, a plastic grocery bag with two cordless phones and several square plastic trays with the word “McDonald’s” on the back in the Dumpster next to the kitchen.

The boots matched the description given by Hutchings, O’Hearn and Solomon. They also matched the boot tread pattern that was photographed inside the McDonald’s restaurant and the boots seen on video surveillance video inside McDonald’s.

Eventually, Officer Anthony knocked on the door of room 117 and contacted Foy. Foy was interviewed at the Palmer Post May 29. She was read her Miranda Warning and agreed to answer questions.

Foy told Crockett that she was staying at the Grand View in room 117 with Leopold and Skaggs. Foy said she had been with the two for the past three days. Foy said she and Skaggs were dropped off at the Wasilla Wal-Mart so Leopold could rob the Palmer McDonald’s. Foy said Skaggs also knew about the robbery, but Leopold went alone.

Foy was initially charged with conspiring to commit the robbery but there wasn’t enough evidence of the crime presented, Palmer District Attorney Roman Kalytiak said. The magistrate threw it out. But that doesn’t necessarily mean she’s off the hook.

“We need to take the case to grand jury on the others anyway, and will explore in grand jury whether Foy was involved in any way,” Kalytiak wrote in an email.

Interviewed separately, Skaggs confirmed the story about waiting at Wal-Mart during the robbery, the affidavit says.

After the robbery, Foy said Leopold returned to Wal-Mart and picked the two women up in his purple Pontiac. Then the three went and got a room at the Grand View Inn.

Interviewed around 6 p.m., Tuesday at Mat-Su West, Skaggs told Crockett that Leopold got “burned” a couple of nights prior in Anchorage and needed money. She said she took “burned” to mean that someone ripped him off.

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Skaggs told Crockett she had been hanging out with Leopold and Foy since Saturday night. Leopold began making comments about robbing McDonald’s on Saturday, Skaggs told Crockett.

On May 29, Skaggs and Leopold were headed to court on a different matter when he asked her to hold a Carrs grocery bag while he filled the bag with the till change boxes he had taken in the robbery.

Skaggs said Leopold asked her to throw the bag into the Dumpster, and she did. She told officer Crockett she also threw away a pair of black winter boots that Leopold said he didn’t need anymore.

After the court appointment, Skaggs said they went to Arby’s and Target. At Target, Leopold paid a person named Max money he owed him. They went to Fred Meyer where they were taken into custody.

When Crockett went to interview Leopold May 29, he was read his Miranda Warning and then Leopold asked to speak to his attorney.

Crockett said Leopold did, however, make spontaneous statements in his patrol car during transport.

“Leopold said he hoped he would be seen as a good guy who was going through hard times,” Crockett wrote.

Contact managing editor Heather A. Resz at 352-2268 or heather.resz@frontiersman.com, or reporter Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.