Careful serial robber tripped up by DNA lifted from chair, police say
A suspect in a series of Las Vegas Valley heists in which the robber threatened to start shooting or set off an explosion told detectives that he “used so many measures” to avoid getting caught.
They included not carrying a cellphone to avoid being tracked, covering “as much (of his body) as he could” and choosing locations that allowed him to make quick escapes in his Hyundai Sonata, according to a Metropolitan Police Department.
But Jeremy George Francom, 40, did not anticipate that DNA lifted from a chair he sat in for about 40 minutes in a pharmacy before robbing it could be used to identify him.
Francom, who was arrested on Nov. 4 — a day after the last of nine robberies he is accused of committing — told investigators that he committed the robberies to repay a drug dealer. He also said that the “bombs” he threatened to set off were fake, the report said.
He was booked into the Clark County Detention Center on 20 felony counts of robbery and burglary, Las Vegas Justice Court logs show. A judge has ordered his release on high-monitoring house arrest, although it was unclear Wednesday if he had posted $100,000 in bail.
Francom’s attorney, Jack Buchanan, said he and his staff were investigating the charges.
“Just as with any case, regardless the severity, or the allegations, we are conducting a thorough investigation and I will assist Jeremy throughout the entirety of this process,” he said. “This matter is well within its infancy, and a rush to any judgment would be irresponsible.”
The robberies began on Sept. 24 and continued through Nov. 3. Police said that Francom threatened to shoot a clerk in the first but pretended he had a bomb during the other crimes, which netted him more than $2,100.
On the day of Francom’s arrest, investigators received the results of a DNA test run after an Oct. 23 crime in which the robber waited for nearly an hour in a chair before holding up a pharmacy in the 6400 block of West Charleston Boulevard with the threat of a bomb. That enabled them to get his name and address, according to the report.
Francom is next due in court Tuesday, logs showed.
Contact Ricardo Torres-Cortez at rtorres@reviewjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @rickytwrites.
