EVERETT — A Monroe man who used a BB gun to rob a Snohomish mini-mart and a Lake Stevens coffee stand is off to prison for four years.
A judge also ordered Clinton Wheelock to get an evaluation for substance abuse, finding that drugs contributed to the defendant’s actions. Wheelock wrote a letter to Superior Court Judge Michael Downes before his sentencing, explaining that he’s been addicted to heroin and methamphetamine.
Wheelock, 30, pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree robbery. He didn’t have any prior felony convictions.
The first robbery happened Oct. 12, 2015 at Baker’s Mini-Mart in Snohomish. Wheelock came in wearing a black hoodie pulled down over his face. He slid the hood off, revealing that he was wearing a ski mask.
He pulled a gun on the clerk and ordered her to open the cash register. Wheelock grabbed cash from the till and a bank bag containing more cash and lottery tickets. He fled the store.
A police dog tracked the suspect to a nearby parking lot. Officers found a ski mask on the ground, but the dog lost the robber’s trail.
Detectives sent the mask to the Washington State Patrol crime lab for analysis. Scientists found DNA on the mask but the genetic profile didn’t match any samples in the state’s database.
The case went unsolved until Wheelock robbed a barista at gunpoint at a Lake Stevens coffee stand about two months later.
A police dog tracked a bare-chested Wheelock to a nearby culvert. The defendant told police his car had broken down and he’d been chased by a guy with a rifle.
Police discovered a discarded hat, sweatshirt, BB gun, gloves and T-shirt. Those items were sent to the state crime lab for DNA testing. The profile matched the one recovered from the discarded ski mask in Snohomish. Detectives collected a genetic sample directly from Wheelock. He was a match for the evidence collected at both crime scenes.
In his letter to Downes, Wheelock apologized to the women he terrorized.
“I am truly sorry for the what these girls had to be put through due to my actions,” he wrote. “It is a burden I will always have to carry, knowing I put so much fear in someone who was innocent and undeserving.”
Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463; hefley@heraldnet.com.
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