The man accused of robbing a store in July and then attempting to intimidate witnesses from the Washtenaw County Jail had a pretrial hearing postponed Monday.
Desmond Parker
Courtesy of WCSO
Desmond Parker, 26, of Detroit, was in court for a pretrial hearing in the armed robbery case Monday afternoon. Washtenaw County Trial Court Judge Darlene O’Brien adjourned the hearing until 1:30 p.m. June 10 to match up with his other case.
Parker is accused of robbing an Ypsilanti store at gunpoint on July 2. According to police, Parker approached the store’s owner behind the building in the 800 block of North Huron River Drive during a cigarette break. Parker told the man to get back in the store, made him open the register and took cash.
He was arrested shortly after that and charged with armed robbery, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, carrying a concealed weapon, assaulting, resisting or obstructing a police officer and being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Parker has been lodged at the jail since then and then was arraigned on new charges March 14. According to deputies, Parker was writing mail to try and get witnesses or victims to not testify in the armed robbery case.
He’s been charged with four counts of witness intimidation and one count of false report of a felony and solicitation of lying to police.
A preliminary exam in the witness intimidation case is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. April 22 at the 14A-1 District Court in Pittsfield Township. Parker remains at the jail on a $100,000 cash or surety bond on the armed robbery case, $100,000 cash or surety bond on the witness intimidation case and 10 percent of $10,000 on the resisting arrest charge.
Kyle Feldscher covers cops and courts for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at kylefeldscher@annarbor.com or you can follow him on Twitter.