A Chantilly teen has pleaded guilty to robbing a 7-Eleven store in Centreville. He is Adam John Wirth, 18, of 3000 Virginia Dare Court in the Brookside community.
Eric Deane, a Fairfax County police robbery detective, detailed the case against him March 22 and March 23 affidavits for warrants to search Wirth's vehicle and townhouse for possible evidence.
THE CRIME occurred early on Feb. 15, at the 7-Eleven at 13830-I Lee Highway, and was reported to police at 3:43 a.m. The victims, who were working at the store, told police a man entered the business, "brandished a dark-colored pistol at them and demanded money from the store register."
One of the victims handed the cash-register till to the suspect who then fled out the front door with the till and its contents. Afterward, police K-9 officers tracked the robber from the scene, around the west end of the store, and then east along the rear of the shopping center to the area behind the AMF Centreville Lanes bowling alley at 13814 Lee Highway.
In March, Deane reviewed the surveillance tapes from the 7-Eleven. He noticed that the robber wore an "unconventional-type 'mask' (dark-colored with a white patch on top of the head), a black long-sleeved shirt or jacket, faded blue jeans and black-and-white sneakers. He also saw the suspect holding a dark-colored pistol.
The detective investigated further and developed information that the suspected robber was someone named A.J. who drove a black, Ford Bronco. Deane learned that A.J. and another person parked the vehicle that night behind the bowling alley and then walked behind the other stores before entering the 7-Eleven.
A check of police-department records led Deane to Adam John Wirth of Chantilly. And from the Department of Motor Vehicles, Deane discovered that Wirth owns a black, Ford Bronco.
ACCORDING TO the detective, the fact that Wirth and the other man "walked down the rear of the stores before coming into the 7-11 and robbing it is corroborated by the K-9 track and other facts in this case." On March 23, police charged Wirth with two counts of robbery and one count of use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.
Police executed the search warrants for Wirth's home and vehicle on March 23. From the Bronco, they seized a black T-shirt. From Wirth's townhouse, they seized a pair of black-and-white sneakers, a Walther P22 BB pistol, an Action Arms pellet gun and five .40-caliber bullets.
On July 24 in General District Court, one of Wirth's robbery charges, plus the firearm charge, were dropped. The grand jury indicted him on the remaining robbery charge and, last Wednesday, Nov. 15, he pleaded guilty to it in Circuit Court. Judge Jane Roush then set his sentencing for Feb. 16.