KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Five Kansas City men are facing federal charges for their alleged roles in a conspiracy to commit a series of armed robberies at local businesses.
One of those robberies ended with a deadly shooting at an Inner City Oil gas station at 59th and Swope on Monday morning.
Joe Lee Nichols, 25, Torrance Edmond Key, 25, Justin Domonique Davis, 27, Charles Stephon Porter, 27, and Anthony Payne Jr., 26, were charged in U.S. District court on Thursday.
Nichols, Key, Davis, Porter and Payne are charged with one count of conspiracy to commit robbery and one count of brandishing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence. Surveillance video from Inner City Oil helped lead to the suspects’ capture.
Among the businesses hit are a Boost Mobile at 5218 Truman Road, Metro PCS stores at 2715 Van Brunt, 101 Hardesty, and 8201 Wornall Road, Arrowhead Inn at 6006 E. 31st Street and Wood Spring Suites Hotel at 11301 Colorado. The robberies took place between June 12 and July 16. A handgun was shown during all of them, according to authorities.
FOX4 was at the scene when the FBI arrested Nichols at Gregory and The Paseo on Thursday last night. Federal investigators believe Nichols is also the man who held up Inner City Oil.
While the suspects are charged with the robberies, federal documents don’t list charges for the death of Ira Brown, the worker slain at the gas station.
