A 17-year-old Camas boy allegedly used a drug deal as a ruse to assault and rob at gunpoint an acquaintance who apparently owed him money.
Matthew J. Cash appeared Tuesday in Clark County Superior Court, where he entered not-guilty pleas to second-degree assault and first-degree robbery stemming from a Jan. 15 incident near Lacamas Lake.
Initially, two other Camas teenagers — Edward Rog and Cody Williams, both 18 — were arrested in connection with the robbery. However, Williams has since been exonerated pending further investigation, court records show.
Rog pleaded not guilty Friday to second-degree assault and first-degree robbery. He posted $50,000 bond shortly after his arrest, according to court documents.
Trial dates for Cash and Rog were set for March 19 and April 16, respectively.
Cash is being held on $25,000 bail.
Dispatchers received an anonymous report about 2:15 a.m. for a disturbance at the Lacamas Lake overflow parking lot in the 400 block of Northeast 35th Avenue. The caller said at least four people were in the lot yelling and someone was saying, “Don’t do it, don’t do it,” according to an affidavit of probable cause.
Camas police responded and located a silver Infinity sedan with two men standing outside. The victim, Craig Wilson, then 18, told officers he was hanging out in the lot with his friend, Rog, when he was assaulted by Cash, who had already fled the scene. He said he owed Cash $10 and that the teen threatened him with a firearm. Wilson suffered cuts to his face, a scraped knee and bruising on his back, the affidavit states.
Rog told police he was in the car and only witnessed part of the incident. He didn’t see the assailant or the firearm, he said, and didn’t hear any threats, court records said.
But as police continued to question Wilson and Rog, they said they noticed discrepancies in their stories.
Wilson eventually admitted to being in the lot for a drug deal. He said he agreed to buy 20 Xanax pills from Rog and paid him $100 ahead of time through an online application. The two then met up so Rog could give Wilson the pills, according to court documents.
Wilson said they briefly left together, and when they returned to the lot, another vehicle was there. That’s when Cash came up to Wilson’s driver’s side door, opened it and repeatedly punched him in the face. Cash held what appeared to be a handgun to Wilson’s temple, he said, and threatened to shoot him. He then yanked Wilson from the car and threw him to the ground, where he continued to assault him and demanded money, the affidavit states.
Cash went through Wilson’s pockets and took his wallet, which contained a tuition check and $10 bill. He kept asking where the Xanax was, so Wilson grabbed the pills from his car. Cash snatched them from his hand. He then threw Wilson to the ground again and fled, according to court documents.
During their interviews, police began to suspect that Rog knew more than he was saying.
Rog consented to a search, and police found a Xanax pill on him and Wilson’s tuition check. He claimed that he found the check on the driver’s seat and grabbed it for safekeeping. But then he changed his story, court records show.
Rog said he was with Cash at Williams’ house when Cash planned the robbery. At first, he thought Cash was joking, he said, and then he tried to talk him out of it.
He told Cash that he planned to meet up with Wilson for the drug exchange. Rog got the pills from Cash and allowed him to ride along to the meet up. He said he wasn’t a part of the assault and tried to break it up, according to court documents.
Williams said he was pressured into going along to the robbery but said he ran away when it got “heated.” He told police that both Cash and Rog were armed with handguns, the affidavit said.
Officers located Cash on Monday at the Motel 6 in Vancouver. Police and the county regional SWAT team took him into custody without incident.
