Man Charged As Accomplice In Armed Robbery Of Piggly Wiggly; ECSO Says Pair Split The Cash

February 12, 2020

An Atmore man is now charged as an accomplice in the December armed robbery  of the Piggly Wiggly in Davisville, just south of the Alabama-Florida state line.

Johnny Cecil Patterson, 46, was booked into the Escambia County Jail this week on charges of first degree accessory after the fact robbery with a firearm and grand theft.

Former Piggly Wiggly employee Maurice Montraye Ervin, 26, is was arrested in December for robbery with a firearm and first degree felony aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. He is also charged with felony grand theft for an earlier incident caught on camera.

On December 4, 2019, Ervin called Patterson and asked for a ride to the Piggly Wiggly at their 10 p.m. closing time, according to an arrest report.. Patterson picked Ervin up and dropped him off at the shopping center on Highway 97.

Ervin allegedly entered the Piggly Wiggly  at 9:51 p.m., just before the store closed. He was armed with a small silver and black semi-automatic handgun, according to an arrest report. He approached the clerk and pointed the gun at a female employee as he ordered her not to move or talk. He took $6,686.66 from the safe before fleeing the store, according to investigators. The victim told deputies that she recognized the voice of the robber as Ervin, but she did not see his face because he was wearing a mask.

Patterson picked Ervin up immediately after the robbery and drove to Ervin’s residence on West Sunset Drive in Atmore, about six miles away, the report states. Patterson also provided Ervin with Ziploc bags to use when dividing the money. Investigators don’t know the amounts of the division.

In calls monitored at the Escambia County Detention Center in Brewton, Ervin and Patterson had several conversations about picking up the money from a hidden location and using it to put on Ervin’s personal account at the jail. Investigators said that in those conversations, Ervin describes in detail the location of the hidden money and directions Patterson on what to do with it.

When interviewed by deputies, Patterson completed a sworn written statement that he was called by Patterson, and he did drop him off and pick him up at the Piggly Wiggly. He said he had no conversation at all with Ervin in the vehicle, and he refused to get the hidden money when Ervin called from the jail.

Shortly after the robbery, Ervin was located in the 300 block of Sunset Drive in Atmore and taken into custody by Atmore Police on an outstanding failure to appear warrant. Atmore Police found a firearm matching the exact description of the one used in the robbery inside the 12-foot travel trailer in which  Ervin was living. Five days after the robbery, his driver’s license was found in a ditch behind the Piggly Wiggly.

Ervin was also charged with grand theft for allegedly taking $941.91 from the Piggly Wiggly on October 29. Erwin was an employee at the time he was seen on video taking the cash from store’s office, according to an arrest report.

Patterson remains in the Escambia County Jail without bond due to an outstanding failure to appear warrant, while Ervin is being held on a $130,000 bond.

Comments

One Response to “Man Charged As Accomplice In Armed Robbery Of Piggly Wiggly; ECSO Says Pair Split The Cash”

  1. chris on February 12th, 2020 11:18 am

    Rocket scientists should not be robbing grocery stores.

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News