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Details revealed in July Leesburg crime spree
Minutes after waiving the right to his own preliminary hearing, a Baltimore man was back in a Loudoun County District courtroom Oct. 20 to testify against the man he said planned his July 10 botched armed robbery of a Leesburg jewelry store.
William Spencer, 50, said Donald Blount, 44, of Leesburg, told him how to go about robbing the The Other Kind of Jewelry Store without getting caught.
When Spencer tried to carry out the plan, it ended up escalating into two hostage situations, the second of which lasted about nine hours.
Spencer was charged with robbery and using a firearm while committing a felony for the armed robbery of the jewelry store.
Blount was charged with robbery and conspiracy for the incident.
During the preliminary hearing, Spencer, a self-confessed felon with more than 20 convictions, gave a detailed account of what went wrong July 10.
This is his account:
July 9 was the first time Spencer had been to Virginia.
He was living on the streets of Baltimore trying to find a job and “trying to get some fast money.”
Two weeks before the incident, his friend Shawn Malone said they were going to get some “fast money in Virginia.”
“He told me about a jewelry store,” Spencer said.
The night of July 9, Malone picked Spencer up and drove him to Blount's house in Leesburg. Spencer did not know Blount beforehand.
Blount described the jewelry store and told him to go in and take the gold chains and diamond rings that are on the left side of the store.
“Donald said they'd done it already and got away with it,” Spencer said.
Blount gave him a gun and told him he should pull the gun out but not shoot, then leave really fast and take two right turns where Malone would be waiting in a getaway car.
Blount would be waiting down the street and would follow them to Baltimore. At that point, Spencer would stay in Baltimore, and Blount and Malone would drive to New York to trade the jewelry for money. Blount was to pay Spencer the next day.
“It didn't happen like that,” Spencer said.
He described how he took the gun out of a bag Blount had given him and accidentally fired it. The bag also had a T-shirt in it.
At that point, one of the store's workers went into a room behind the cash register, while the other went out the door and started screaming.
Spencer then left the store and went to the parking lot where he was supposed to meet Malone.
But another man started yelling at him to stop, so Malone pulled off without him.
He then went to Blount's car, where Blount told him to give him the gun and go hide. Blount said he would pick him up later.
Spencer refused to give Blount the gun and ran into the woods while Blount drove off.
DNA evidence presented at the hearing connected Blount to the T-shirt found in the bag Spencer left at the store.
Spencer also admitted to going into a couple different houses immediately after the botched robbery.
Police believe he held a family on Royal Street hostage before stealing a car and holding Robert and Frances Belote hostage in their Valley View Avenue home. Charges have not yet been filed in those incidents.
Blount's attorney, Eric Strom, argued that Spencer “seems to want to drag somebody else down with him,” noting that Spencer could not point out any defining characteristics of the gun he claimed belonged to Blount, and he could not name the make of Blount's car or the street Blount lived on.
“I would suggest Mr. Spencer's credibility is very questionable,” Strom said.
Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Amy Totten argued that Spencer had nothing to gain from the matter and was very detailed about the chain of events. Since Blount's DNA was on the shirt, it ties him to the crime, she said.
“Donald Blount was the mastermind behind this robbery, and that is the bottom line,” she said.
Judge Frank Buttery sided with Totten, and a grand jury will hear charges against both men Nov. 9.
Contact the reporter at jwagoner@timespapers.com
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