When robbing a store with others in tow, it’s best to make sure they’re on board with your plan. A man didn’t iron out the exact details of his robbery when he was ratted out by one of his friends who had tagged along.
Braxton Eugene Vanthournout was arrested on January 18, 2023, and charged with one felony count of first-degree burglary for an incident that took place on New Year’s Eve. Springfield Police Department officers were called to a gas station to respond to a robbery around at around 6:30 a.m.
The gas station clerk told police that three males had entered the store and wandered around for a while until one of them asked for bottles of alcohol. The other two walked out of the store. When the clerk placed the bottles on the counter, the suspect pulled out a handgun and demanded the alcohol, as well as a pack of Marlboro Special Select 100s.
The case took a turn on January 10, 2023, when a student reported to a Springfield school officer that he had gone to a convenience store over winter break and one of the people he was with robbed it. The next day, police arrived at his home and showed his mother the photos of the three males at the robbery. The mother identified her son and allowed the police to speak to him.
The juvenile said that he and the other male who did not pull a gun on the gas station employee met with Vanthournout the night before the incident. The juvenile witness said he was not well-acquainted with the 18-year-old.
Police were able to locate Vanthournout on Facebook and used body cam footage to connect Vanthournout from the assault call to the male from the gas station robbery security footage. When arrested, Vanthournout claimed that he was “very high on acid” when he robbed the gas station and was told by the two friends that “they would give him marijuana if he robbed the store of a couple of bottles of alcohol.”
Vanthournout also said the handgun was actually a BB gun and that after he robbed the gas station, he gave the bottles to the other, who then went to go get him some marijuana but they never came back.