HILLSBORO, Ore.- On January 16, 2019, a Washington County jury found Robert David Duke guilty of first-degree robbery and second-degree robbery. He was sentenced to 90 months in prison for this Measure 11 crime. The trial began January 15, 2019 in Judge Oscar Garcia’s courtroom. Senior Deputy District Attorney Bracken McKey prosecuted the case against Duke.

Duke and his accomplice, Jason Jeremiah Patton, committed an armed robbery at a Beaverton consignment shop on October 28, 2018. Duke held a female employee at gunpoint and stole cash and jewelry. That jewelry had an estimated retail value of $250,000. The employee was not physically hurt during the robbery.

Duke was arrested just a few hours after the robbery, thanks to officer Loren Andler of the Beaverton Police Department. Andler and his training recruit, Daniela Pamfilie, were among the first officers to respond to the call. After the initial search for the suspects came up empty, Andler used his knowledge of the area to determine the best place to hide the getaway car. As he and Pamfilie were scouting that location, Duke emerged from a nearby walking trail and was arrested without incident.

Detective Chad Opitz of the Beaverton Police Department soon took over the investigation. Through digital forensics conducted on several phones involved in the case, he and his team were able to determine the suspects had been planning this robbery for some time. That evidence, along with jailhouse recordings and body-worn camera footage, were instrumental in the trial against Duke.

Detectives were also able to recover all the stolen items and returned them to the store’s owner. They were tipped off as to the location of the stolen jewelry thanks to a jailhouse call Duke made. All calls made from the Washington County Jail are recorded. Detectives reviewed a call between Duke and a female acquaintance in which he cryptically tried to tell her where she could find the stolen goods. Officers got there first and retrieved the items before the woman could. When she arrived a short time later, officers seized her phone and used data found on it to piece together the remaining details of the robbery.

Patton was able to flee the area but was apprehended several months later in Florida. On November 21, 2019, he was convicted of two counts of first-degree robbery and one count of second-degree robbery. A sentencing hearing is scheduled for December 5, 2019.