4 charged in Durham, Chapel Hill robberies

DURHAM -- Four men have been arrested and charged with a string of holdups that took place within a couple of hours late Tuesday and early Wednesday.

The first robbery was reported at 11:36 p.m. Tuesday at a Durham apartment complex on Emerald Forest Drive, Durham police said in a news release. A man told police he was going to the mailbox when he was robbed at gunpoint of his wallet, phone and laptop computer.

The second robbery was reported at 12:20 a.m Wednesday in the 5500 block of Sunlight Drive in Durham. A man was going to his house when armed robbers took his keys, iPod and phone, police said. The robbers fled in a red Nissan Altima.

A third robbery took place at 12:48 a.m. Wednesday at Pinegate Apartments in Chapel Hill, where a robbers approached a man, knocked his cell phone from his hand and ordered him to the ground, said Chapel Hill Police Lt. Kevin Gunter.

The man told police one robber stomped on his hand and another kicked him in the ribs before taking his cell phone and keys. As the robbers ran away, the man heard gunfire, Gunter said.

The fourth robbery took place shortly after 1 a.m. Wednesday outside Avery Residence Hall on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus. A robber pointed a gun at a delivery driver for Cluck-U Chicken and took his wallet, said Randy Young, a UNC public safety spokesman.

Early Wednesday morning, Durham Police Sgt. Daniel Edwards spotted a red Altima on old Chapel Hill Road and stopped it on Sterling Ridge Lane off Garrett Road. Officers said they found firearms and items belonging to the robbery victims.

Arrested were two Durham men, James Todd Weeks, 22, of Kirby Street and Jerry Stephens II, 21, of Myra Street, and two men from Charlotte, Dominique Cuthbertson, 18, and Paul Martin Petway, 21.

All four were charged with two counts of robbery with a dangerous weapon, two counts of felony conspiracy and two counts of possession of stolen property in connection with the Durham cases.

Cuthbertson, Petway and Weeks were charged with armed robbery in the hold at Pinegate Apartments in Chapel Hill. Cuthbertson and Petway also were charged with assault with a deadly weapon in that case.

The Cluck-U Chicken delivery driver later identified Cuthbertson as the man who robbed him outside Avery Residence Hall, Young said. Cuthbertson was charged with armed robbery, assault by pointing a gun and possession of a firearm on campus in connection with the incident.