Suspects betrayed by their baseball caps

Henry K. Lee

Chronicle Staff Writer

Monday, October 5, 2009


(10-05) 15:05 PDT CONCORD -- Two Concord bank robbery suspects were identified after they left behind DNA-laden baseball caps and a "High School Musical" bag filled with dye-stained cash, court records show.

Donte Maurice Turner, 29, and Sterling Isaac Garner, 22, allegedly robbed the U.S. Bank on Clayton Road in Concord at gunpoint last Oct. 15 and fled with $6,889.

Witnesses saw two men running through the parking lot of a nearby store. One man was carrying a black bag that was "emitting smoke" from a dye-pack device, FBI Special Agent Todd Dorman wrote in an affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Oakland.

Police called to the scene found a large amount of dye-stained money, two exploded dye packs, two baseball caps, a black "High School Musical" bag with red dye stains and a pair of gloves, Dorman wrote.

A crime lab processed the baseball caps and matched DNA to Turner and Garner, authorities said.

In addition to the October robbery, Turner is in custody for a parole violation for allegedly robbing the Concord Federal Credit Union on Second Street on June 12.

Garner allegedly confessed to last year's robbery and told authorities that he was "yelled at" for dropping the money when the dye packs exploded, because the cash "could have been cleaned with alcohol," Dorman wrote.

Garner, whose listed occupation is that of a crime-scene cleaner, is being held without bail at a downtown Oakland jail.