Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge William J. Rowan dismissed an armed robbery charge against Justin Schweiger Tuesday. Schweiger is one of five former Walt Whitman student-athletes charged with robbing a Bethesda Smoothie King.
Schweiger, however, still faces a conspiracy charge in the March 30 crime. His trial resumes this morning. Schweiger is alleged to have waited in a car while Robert Warren entered the store wearing a ski mask, presented an inoperable gun, and took $463.
Also charged are Pat Lazear and Thomas Ashley, who also are alleged to have been waiting in the car, and Alex Krouskas, a Smoothie King employee who was working at the store the night of the crime.
Warren, who plead guilty to armed robbery last month and was sentenced to 30 days in jail, testified Tuesday. Schweiger’s attorney, Gary Diamond, pointed to discrepancies in Warren’s testimony Tuesday and statements he made to police on April 28.
Warren testified on Tuesday he and his four friends talked of the crime earlier in the day at school. But according to a transcript of the police interview from April, Warren said, “The others were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I kind of hinted at [the robbery], but I didn’t say what I was going to do. They didn’t do anything wrong. They were just there.”
Asked about the April 28 statement on Tuesday, Warren said, “I was trying to protect them. They were good kids who made a dumb mistake.”
In exchangefor Warren’s statements and his plea, police dropped an unrelated gun charge, an unrelated assault charge, an unrelated burglary charge in which Warren is alleged to have stolen two guns from the home of a neighbor, and “several,” according to court documents, automobile and vending machine thefts.
The trial for Lazear, one of the Washington area’s most highly sought after football recruits, is set to begin Nov. 29. Statements by Warren and his girlfriend in court Tuesday indicated Lazear played a larger role in the crime than the others, driving the car, supplying the inoperable gun, and urging Krouskas to go through with the crime when he expressed reservations earlier in the day.
The trials for Krouskas and Ashley are set for January.
