Man Gets 10 Years In Prison For Tom Thumb Robbery, Escape, Stealing Tires

March 23, 2010

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ewingantonio.jpgA 19-year old has been sentenced to 10 years in prison on charges related to a crime spree in which he robbed the Molino Tom Thumb, stole tires in Century to fix a flat on the getaway car and then escaped from deputies after he was arrested.

Antonio Demetrius Ewing , of West Highway 4, Century was found guilty of burglary of an unoccupied structure, first degree petty theft, robbery, grand theft, criminal mischief and escape.

Ewing was due in court on earlier concealed weapons charged on September 14, 2009.  But instead, he went on the crime spree that day, beginning with the Tom Thumb robbery and continuing with his arrest, partially due to a NorthEscambia.com reader.

Surveillance video  from the Tom Thumb (click here to watch) shows the 10 second robbery. Two people entered the front door, pushed a customer out the way, grabbed the entire register case and ran out the door. One of the suspects is shown wearing a dark colored shirt, white socks on his hands and a camouflage bandanna around his face.

About three hours later, Escambia County deputies were called to a reported suspicious person and a possible burglary on Alger Road in Century. When they arrived, they found a Pontiac Firebird with no tag in the parking lot of the Gospel Light Temple on Alger Road in Century.

tomthumb31.jpgThat is where they found Ewing, with a flat tire. Deputies said Ewing had taken the tires and tools from a nearby shed, and he was trying to fit tires onto the Firebird — including tires that had no rims. According to deputies, the juvenile that was with Ewing had been given a ride by a passerby and was not with the car when they arrived.

While deputies were questioning Ewing about the stolen tires in Century, a deputy that was not in Century at the time realized he had read a comment on NorthEscambia.com’s story about the Tom Thumb robbery. The comment posted by someone with the name “me” mentioned a teal green Firebird with no tag being seen off the road on Sunshine Hill Road shortly after the robbery.

The deputy called Sheriff’s dispatchers on the the telephone, and dispatchers talked on the phone with deputies in Century — alerting them that they possibly had the Tom Thumb robber in custody. In the meantime, NorthEscambia.com was able to provide contact phone numbers for the poster “me” to deputies in Century. Deputies spoke to the poster’s husband in Molino, and he exactly described the car that deputies had found in Century.

tom-thumb-robbery-42.jpgWhen deputies searched the location provided by the NorthEscambia.com reader on Sunshine Hill Road at Cedar Springs Road, they found the cash register from the robbery of the Tom Thumb,  parts of the vehicle where the suspects had apparently hit a stump, and money. White socks were also located in some brush.

Inside the car, investigators discovered a camouflage shirt that appeared to match the one used in the robbery.

Ewing was taken into custody and transported to the Century Precinct of the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office for questioning about the tire theft and about the Tom Thumb robbery. When deputies walked Ewing out of the Century Precinct to place him a cruiser to take him to jail, he ran. Deputies said Ewing ran across Highway 29 toward Century Woods Apartments where he lives. After a brief foot chase, Ewing was taken back into custody.

A 15-year old juvenile was also charged in connection with the incident.

For an exclusive photo gallery from the September 14 robbery investigation at the store in Molino, the vehicle recovery and suspect arrest in Century, and the investigation on Sunshine Hill Road, click here.

Pictured top: Investigator Frank Way discovered camouflage clothing in the back of a car in Century on September 14. A camouflage bandanna was used earlier that morning in the robbery of the Molino Tom Thumb. Pictured top inset: Ewing in the back of a deputy’s car in Century. Pictured bottom inset: The cash register recovered on Sunshine Hill Road at Cedar Springs Road. Pictured below: The September 14 Tom Thumb robbery scene in Molino. NorthEscambia.com file photos, click to enlarge.

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Comments

20 Responses to “Man Gets 10 Years In Prison For Tom Thumb Robbery, Escape, Stealing Tires”

  1. Samuell Ewing on May 29th, 2010 5:52 pm

    If anybody is going to post a comment about my brother dont try to downgrade him yeah he messed up but he’s going through ALOT, alot of stuff yall wouldnt know about !!! its hard for people sometimes but most of yall dont know about that!! i bet everybody who left a bad comment bout my brother has a mother and a father present or had one while yall were teens i bet yall didnt struggle and has a permanent house to live in but everybody DONT!!

    keep ya head up BRO

    Samuell Kendatia Ewing

  2. art vandelay on March 25th, 2010 10:34 pm

    what an idiot. get a job you loser instead of robbin gas stations for money. he was probly one of those bums hopin to live off the government the rest of his life. Also who the heck tries to put a tire on that doesnt even have a rim?? he should be given 10 years just for bein stupid. haha what an idiot

  3. tommy on March 25th, 2010 10:11 pm

    How I like them apples you asked? You have to come much harder than that if you want to impress me.However, We can go on and on like children but its not my thing.I believe that when a MAN was a CHILD he think as a CHILD and when a CHILD becomes grown MAN should put away his CHILDISH ways.GOD BLESS YOU MAN………

  4. Atmoreboy on March 25th, 2010 5:45 pm

    JohnMolino has spoken…go dude

  5. JohnMolino on March 25th, 2010 3:24 pm

    @tommy,
    Listen son, I’m as cool as the other side of the pillow. With all the unnecessary exclamation points and letters inflected into your text, I would suggest you are the one who needs to cool down.

    Race comments? At no time in my original text can you find any comments regarding race. You assumed that. You mentioned race in your text, not I. I simply responded to the accusation and hammered home my point. My point, which not surprising to anyone, you dodged and avoided like the plaque. You must have been a star Dodge Ball player in grade school.

    At the core of liberalism is the spoiled child – miserable, as all spoiled children are, unsatisfied, demanding, ill-disciplined, despotic and useless. Liberalism is a philosophy of sniveling brats.
    With that creed of sniveling brats well established, we now venture into the next part of liberalism…
    The second item in the liberal creed, after self-righteousness, is unaccountability. Liberals have invented whole college majors like animal psychology, Afro-Gay sociology, women’s studies- to prove that nothing is anybody’s fault. No one is fond of taking responsibility for his actions, but consider how much you’d have to hate free will to come up with a political platform that advocates killing unborn babies but not convicted murderers. A callous pragmatist might favor abortion and capital punishment. A devout Christian would sanction neither. But it takes years of therapy to arrive at the liberal view.

    Perhaps my original point was that the entitlement class,affirmative action recipients,welfare class and the leftist liberal handwringing political correctness crowd was to blame. How do you like them apples?

  6. tommy on March 25th, 2010 2:26 pm

    johnmolino,good job on doing your homework.I did mine too. But the fact still remains and your point is senseless.Why the race card ? whether there black,white,short,tall,fat,skinny,rich,poor,ect.They should be punish according to there crime.The silly race comments is SOoooooooooo unnecessary. You just want to blow off some steam.You are entitled to do that .But you should have cooled off by now. yes, I don’t agree with some thing the president is doing ether But is this about the election?Or is this about justice being served? He need to be locked up for what he did one less criminal on the streets. But the election is over for now. I suggest you write the WHITE HOUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  7. mme on March 25th, 2010 11:02 am

    let us all search ourslves and see what kind of crimes have we committed.what i mean about that is in some point in life we have robbed and lied and stolen and cheated and even some of our families have committed crimes in this world we have to give in account for our action.but what about when we have to answer to the man above,so lets not be judging other people maybe he didnt have no one in his life to encourage him and to teach him to do whats right.yes he did the crime and now hes doing the time.but if at anytime you didnt pay your tithes or give your offering you robbed god and the word says in the book of.malachi 3:8 says will a man rob god?yet ye have robbed me.but ye say,wherein have we robbed thee?in tithes and offering. if you broke any one of the ten commandments then your no better then him.so lets pray for him that the devil want keep on fooling him

  8. Bill2 on March 25th, 2010 7:33 am

    Johnmolino Now that is an” inconvenient truth”

  9. JohnMolino on March 25th, 2010 2:03 am

    @tommy
    Thank you for your interest. As a matter of fact, I have thought long and hard about that comment prior to posting it.I also did my homework.
    Would you like a purview? Yes? Thanks for asking! Read it and weep:
    It’s a matter of record that minorities voted heavily into the Obama camp,during the last election. Blacks, 96 percent Obama to 3 percent McCain.
    http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/04/exit.polls/

    I think we can all agree if this young man even voted at all, he would have fallen into that 96 percentile. That’s what I call a safe bet. I never said blacks were not the only people who voted for Obama. The racial makeup of our county jails can attest to that. Blacks are not the only ones breaking the law either. I also never suggested I was cute. Attractive maybe, ruggedly handsome to some, dashing and debonair to others …but never cute. Babies,puppies and kittens are cute. Me, not so much.
    How do you know I’m not an educated American who happens to be black and a conservative voter? Not that it matters.
    Feel free to visit a wonderful website of Conservative Americans who just happen to be Black:
    National Black Republican Association
    http://www.nbra.info/

  10. blondie on March 24th, 2010 11:59 pm

    johnmolino get your foot out of your mouth and shout up

  11. tommy on March 24th, 2010 10:45 pm

    Johnmolino mabey you should of thought a little more about that comment before you actually said that out loud remember blacks are not the only obama voters grow up!!!!!!! you are not cute……….

  12. not an english major on March 24th, 2010 8:55 am

    Another prize winner off the streets! Justice served well!

  13. blondie on March 23rd, 2010 11:55 pm

    bad boy got caught good let see if justice be served if you comitte murder and attempt to kill three more people……. justice is blind

  14. JohnMolino on March 23rd, 2010 4:51 pm

    At this rate, there isn’t going to be any Obama voters left to vote him back into office…
    ….and that’s the good news.

  15. Atmoreboy on March 23rd, 2010 4:46 pm

    He was robbin and stealin and running on the loose…
    Now they got him and they cuffed him and they cooked his goose…
    He will go down in the dungeon for 5 or 10…
    Where he will make friends that will take advantage of him…
    But time will go by and he’ll be set free….
    Just in time to start another crime spree…

  16. bill on March 23rd, 2010 4:16 pm

    $100 this time,a life next time ..Glad he’s off the streets! $300,000 well spent ! not threw away on Dems health care

  17. Oversight on March 23rd, 2010 9:10 am

    With the cost of housing a prisoner at about $30 grand per year, it’ll only be about $300,000 for the ten he was given that it’s going to cost the tax payers. And what’d he collect for the robbery, less than $100? What a trade!

  18. YELLAR HAMMER on March 23rd, 2010 8:26 am

    Bad Boy Bad Boy what you gona do now that the ECSD has got U !!!!

  19. Angi on March 23rd, 2010 7:36 am

    Glad to hear he was caught, thank goodness another one is off the streets doing crime… WTG guys…

  20. thats good!! on March 23rd, 2010 1:15 am

    Well I am glad he got some time maybe he will grow up!! And I think he should have got a longer sentence but it seems 2 me if people who commit worse crimes get a lesser sentence