| The convenience store located on the corner of 100 North and 100 West is a busy location all day. Just minutes before the store closed last week, police said Griffen Jorgensen held up the store clerk and fled the scene with a backpack containing an unspecified amount of money. |
Three individuals were taken into police custody after a string of alleged robberies and attempted robberies last week.
The alleged crimes occurred at three businesses in Price and a fourth location in East Carbon City.
Initial information provided by Price Police Capt. Kevin Drolc last week referenced two of the instances which reportedly took place on Wednesday night.
At approximately 7 p.m. on Oct. 19, a suspect wearing a gray sweatshirt with the hood up reportedly approached another individual in the parking lot at the Price Wal-Mart.
Drolc indicated that the suspect allegedly grabbed the prescriptions which had just been purchased by the second individual.
After the alleged robbery, the suspect apparently fled from the Wal-Mart parking lot and headed east, said Drolc.
The unidentified robbery victim described the suspect as a slender male in his 20s, weighing approximately 140 pounds.
Drolc said a subject matching the same description was identified after an alleged robbery at the Gas-N-Go convenience store on the corner of 100 North and 100 West in Price last week.
At 9:43 p.m. on Oct. 19, a suspect reportedly entered the store and demanded all of the cash from the registers.
In addition to the previous description, the clerk at the store added that the individual was wearing a baseball cap under the hood and had a short mustache and beard of reddish-brown hair, representing approximately a week’s growth.
“I don’t believe there was any threat or show of weapon,” pointed out Drolc.
The suspect produced a green camouflage backpack, which the clerk filled with an unspecified amount of cash, continued Drolc.
After the clerk complied with the demands, the subject reportedly fled the convenience store on foot.
Drolc said last week that no direct link between the two crimes had been established, but the two incidents appeared to be related.
“It seems to be connected,” said the Price police captain last week. “We are considering the possibility that it’s the same person.”
Police presented possible suspects to the victims of the crimes, but none were positively identified, said Drolc.
Since the report last week, developments in the case led to the arrest of three individuals and connected two more incidents to the case.
East Carbon Police Chief Sam Leonard said that, last Thursday morning, an individual matching the suspect’s description provided in the first two cases reportedly presented a note to the pharmacist at the medical facility located at 305 Center in the city.
The note purportedly demanded all of the pain medications in the pharmacy, indicated Leonard.
After receiving the note, the pharmacist went to get the medications, but not before triggering the panic alarm.
In response to the alarm, ECPD Sgt. Phillip Holt responded to the pharmacy.
But before police arrived on the scene and before receiving the medications, the subject reportedly fled from the pharmacy.
When this type of incident occurs, Leonard explained that suspected perpetrators often flee to the undeveloped area behind the pharmacy, where the suspects can take cover in the cedars as they make their escape.
Frequently, local law enforcement officers find stolen items and other evidence left by suspects as they flee, continued the East Carbon police chief
After arriving at the pharmacy, Holt received a copy of the note and proceeded into the cedars, where the police sergeant noticed foot prints.
The police sergeant followed the trial of footsteps, which reportedly led to a residence in East Carbon.
“Holt did a great job,” said Leonard. “He followed the tracks for about a half of a mile.”
Reviewing the evidence, police determined that the suspect of the case in East Carbon was purportedly connected with Amos and Elexssis Vigil.
The footprints had led to a home owned by Amos Vigil’s parents. Community members had reported that the couple had been seen with an individual matching the description given in the alleged robberies. The third subject was identified as Griffen Paul Jorgensen, age 28.
After connecting the couple with the suspect, Holt notified Price police of the new information.
A fourth incident was apparently connected to the other three.
Sometime between leaving Wal-Mart and before arriving at Gas-N-Go last Wednesday, police responded to an attempted theft complaint which reportedly occurred in the Kmart parking lot in Price.
The perpetrators had apparently attempted to commit a crime similar to what had taken place at Wal-Mart earlier that evening, said Drolc.
Witnesses from the incident at Kmart were able to positively identify Elexssis Vigil as one of the occupants of a vehicle connected with the alleged attempted robbery.
Drolc explained that the Vigil couple had purportedly been in the store or in a waiting car at each of the three incidents which occurred in Price.
After gathering sufficient information to make the arrests, Price police apprehended the three suspects. Amos Vigil, age 32; Elexssis Vigil, age 28; and Jorgensen were booked into the Carbon County Jail on two counts of robbery and one attempted robbery offense in connection with the Price incidents.
Each of the three suspects face possible prosecution on an attempted robbery charge in connection with the East Carbon case, indicated Leonard.
In addition to the cooperation between East Carbon and Price police, other law enforcement agencies responded to the incidents.
The responders included Wellington police officers, Carbon County sheriff deputies and Utah Highway Patrol troopers.
Price Police Chief Aleck Shilaos commented that in addition to the inter-agency cooperation, law enforcement was assisted greatly by watchful members of the community who provided the information needed to make the arrests.