Desmond Parker
Courtesy of WCSO
A 27-year-old Detroit man admitted in court Monday to robbing the owner of an Ypsilanti store at gunpoint, as well as trying to bribe the man.
Desmond Parker appeared in the Washtenaw County Trial court where he pleaded guilty to six counts related to the two cases in exchange for concurrent terms and the dismissal of five counts at the time of sentencing.
In one case, Parker pleaded guilty to counts of armed robbery, felony firearm, carrying a concealed weapon and possession of a weapon by a felon. A charge of resisting arrest will be dismissed as part of the plea bargain.
In a second case, Parker pleaded guilty to one count of witness intimidation and another count of solicitation of lying to a peace officer. Three counts of witness intimidation and a count of false report of a felony will also be dismissed at the time of the sentencing.
Parker was composed and barely audible in the courtroom Monday when he told Judge Darlene O’Brien he robbed an Ypsilanti store owner in the 800 block of Huron River Drive on July 2.
“I told him to give me money at gunpoint,” Parker said in a hushed tone.
Police said the owner was outside behind the store on a cigarette break when Parker approached him with the gun and made him go inside to open the cash register. Parker then made off with cash, but was arrested a short time later after a short foot chase with police.
Parker also admitted to trying to bribe the store owner. In February 2012, while in the Washtenaw County Jail, Parker wrote a letter to a friend asking him to go to the store owner and offer him money to change his story for authorities.
“I was going to pay him to lie to the police,” Parker said.
The plea bargain calls for all terms to run concurrently except the felony firearm count, which will be an additional two years per state statute.
Parker remains in jail on three bonds: a $100,000 cash or surety bond for the armed robbery case, a $100,000 cash bond for the witness intimidation case and 10 percent of $25,000 on the resisting arrest charge.
His sentencing was scheduled for Sept. 9.