On October 26, 2011, a 54 year-old man already in jail on burglary charges, was arrested and re-booked by La Mesa Police Detectives for a robbery he committed at the La Mesa Arco store at 9600 Murray Dr., La Mesa, on March 18, 2011 at 3:35 AM.  During the March robbery, the suspect entered the Arco store and robbed the clerk by simulating a handgun in his jacket pocket.  The suspect threatened to shoot the clerk.  No one was injured.

The robber is suspected of committed other robberies in surrounding areas.  During one of the robberies, the suspect discarded his sweater into a trash dumpster.  Officers collected the sweater and it was later tested for DNA.  The suspect’s DNA samples collected from the discarded sweater were entered into the California CODIS (DNA bank) computer system, but there were no hits.

On July 21, 2011, suspect Danny Coffield Perry (54) was arrested for unrelated burglary charges in San Diego.  As is customary, DNA samples were obtained from Perry at the time he was booked into jail.  Perry’s DNA sample was subsequently matched to the DNA obtained from the suspect’s sweater in the La Mesa robbery.

Perry was booked for one charge of 211 P.C., Robbery.