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By STEPHEN FRYE
Of The Oakland Press
The moment the cash register's drawer was opened, Romell Lemoyne Goodson thrust his handgun into the face of the 46-year-old man working behind the counter at the Clarkston Shell station just off Interstate 75 on Sashabaw Road.
Goodson jumped over the counter, as his girlfriend followed, grabbing bills and change from the drawer. In a couple of minutes, they robbed the store and the clerk of $250 as Goodson talked into the cell phone tucked between his right shoulder and ear.
It was about 3:30 a.m. July 18. By July 24, police knew who did. Within four months, both Goodson, 29, and his girlfriend, 19-year-old Cierra Horn, were sent to prison after pleading guilty to armed robbery.
Quality pictures from a new high-tech video surveillance system led to a good tip. And video from nine cameras showed what happened. Goodson will serve at least 10 years in prison and Horn at least three years.
As digital equipment becomes cheaper, soon the grainy and snowy images with little detail will be replaced with crystal clear shots of exactly who did it.
"The camera caught everything," said David Leshock, vice president of Autocity Service in Fenton, which owns the Shell and other stations. "We do the best we can. The video has gotten better. The old system was terrible"
With Goodson, detectives were able to stop the DVD at just the right shot to identify the cross tattooed on his forearm. They put a bit of extra money into that," Oakland County Sheriff's Detective Darren Ofiara said. "That was one of the finest. You cannot go wrong with a good video system." Previously, videotapes were regularly reused, degrading the quality of the cassette and image. Moving to digital has helped catch and then prosecute armed robbers, as more information can be saved, allowing multiple cameras and better quality pictures. "Eyewitness testimony is the least reliable form of identifying evidence." said defense attorney Gerald Gleeson, a former assistant prosecutor. "The improved technology eliminates questions of fact that used to raise reasonable doubt."
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With quality surveillance, arguing that one was not the culprit becomes a "moot point," said Assistant Oakland County Prosecutor David Williams, who handled the cases of Goodson and Horn. "It makes it much more difficult to sit in front of a jury and claim innocence," Williams said. "We can simply insert the DVD into a computer, press play, and let the jury watch the crime. And with the improved technologies, police investigators are constantly training on tools that allow them to improve video, becoming such a specialty that video forensic officers, such as West Bloomfield Officer John Wheeler, are certified by international boards.
"We are merely making the images easier to see," Wheeler said. "We don't change anything. It's like walking into a dark room All we do is turn on the lights." He said video can be used in everything from armed robberies to failing to pay for gasoline or credit card fraud. And with video expanding, whenever a crime is committed, there's a chance the incident was recorded, or at least nearby video can be used," Wheeler said.
While casinos have long invested in quality surveillance systems, now smaller businesses such as gas stations - frequently targets of armed robberies - are able to have them. Larry Kaluzny, a West Bloomfield Township defense attorney, has seen defendants change their tunes when confronted with video evidence.
"A picture is a thousand words," he said. Once, a man had robbed a winner in a casino parking lot, and the video showed him as he staked out winning gamblers and waited to confront them later. "It was unbelievable," Kaluzny said. "They backtracked, and they had everything he was doing. From the moment he walked in, evidence was being collected - every second this guy was in the casino. I was amazed."
The hope with these types of video systems is that smaller shops will no longer be considered easy targets. "Not everyone can afford $15,000 systems," said Leshock of the price to outfit one of his stations. But criminals rarely choose the smart path, shown by Goodson ignoring the TV screen with his image on it. And, because of that, Leshock said, men and women like his clerk are left suffering from having a gun shoved into their faces. "They don't care about video surveillance," Leshock said of criminals. "He talked on his cell phone during the entire time of the robbery. He didn't care. It obviously didn't stop him." But it helped convict him and send him to prison. |
