January 20, 2008
Gary Davidson
Public Information Officer

TRAFFIC STOP LEADS DEPUTY TO SOLVING TWO ROBBERIES 

A routine traffic stop early Sunday morning in Deltona turned out to be anything but routine for Volusia County Sheriff’s deputy Aaron Blais, who ended up solving two armed robberies in the process. 

Blais was patrolling Deltona Sunday morning when he spotted a white passenger car commit a traffic infraction while traveling along Courtland Boulevard at about 1:20 a.m. Blais pulled the car over and arrested the driver, 22-year-old Omar Rosa, after learning that his license had been suspended. While searching Rosa’s car, Blais turned up evidence from an armed robbery that had just occurred three days earlier -- a duffle bag stuffed with cartons of cigarettes. Rosa initially claimed that a friend gave him the cigarettes. But after more questioning from Blais, the defendant admitted he took the cigarettes Thursday morning while robbing a Kangaroo Express on Howland Boulevard. About 15 minutes later and three miles from the first armed robbery, a Chevron on Elkcam Boulevard was held up. A small amount of cash was taken in both robberies, but it was the 30 cartons of cigarettes taken at the Kangaroo Express that proved to be Rosa’s undoing. No one was injured during either robbery, and Sheriff’s investigators immediately knew that both were committed by the same suspect after victims at both stores gave similar descriptions of the robber, his clothes and his handgun. A victim at one of the robberies also spotted the getaway vehicle -- a white passenger car. 

Deputies arrested Rosa on two counts of armed robbery and one count of driving with a suspended license. After the questioning and paperwork were completed, the defendant was booked into the Volusia County Branch Jail in Daytona Beach at about 6:45 a.m. Rosa, who lives at 367 Medford Ave. in Deltona, was being held without bond.

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http://www.volusia.org/sheriff/press/080011.htm