Two men arrested in November stickup at Miller's Market

HOUSTON — Authorities have charged two men with robbing Miller’s Market at gunpoint in November 2013.

According to court documents Alaska State Trooper Eric Taylor filed in the case against William Beasley, 18, there were two clerks on duty the day Beasley allegedly strolled into the market at around 6 p.m., Nov. 19.

One of them, a 16-year-old girl, was taking advantage of some downtime to do her homework.

She said she saw the guy walk in with a ski mask on but didn’t think much of it because “there are weird people that come into the store.”

The second clerk was sweeping up next to the coffee machine. She was the first to spot the gun.

“The guy had a gun in his hands as he walked up toward the register and when he saw both (clerks) he moved towards them and said, ‘give me your money, give me your money right now,’” Taylor recounts in his court filings.

Both clerks told troopers that the robber never pointed the shotgun directly at them but did wave it around.

The two ladies went to the cash register and cleaned it out, dropping some of it on the floor in the process but not bending down to pick it up.

The guy in the ski mask grabbed the money, shoved it in his pocket, and left. The clerks gave troopers a description of the man — white, somewhere between 5’6” and 5’9” — and the clothes he was wearing. The store’s owner told troopers the man only made off with $150 from the register.

In April, troopers got wind that Beasley and another man – Joseph D. Scott, 19 — were trading stolen items for drugs and that Beasley was shoplifting things and then pawning them.

“Beasley Jr. made statements to others that he committed an armed robbery at Miller’s Market on the Parks Highway, holding it up at gunpoint. A check of the video surveillance revealed the suspect matched Beasley Jr.’s physical height and weight,” Taylor writes.

Troopers got a search warrant to listen to Beasley’s phone calls and heard him talk about the robbery.

“Beasley stated there were two girls working in the store and he ‘scared the (expletive) out of them,’” Taylor writes. “Beasley stated he and Joey peeled out of there before the cops even got called.”

Both Beasley and Scott were charged with robbery — a relatively serious crime in Alaska — as well as theft. Beasley was also charged with assault.

Beasley is listed as a 2014 graduate of Burchell High School.

As of Thursday afternoon both were still listed as inmates in the Mat-Su Pre-Trial Facility.

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