Pizza Hut's Door Meets Robber's Face

That face-plant proved key in helping police nab a suspect in New Mexico
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 20, 2019 11:29 AM CST

A locked door in a New Mexico Pizza Hut may have helped bust an armed robber who pulled off two crimes in one day back in June. The Las Cruces Sun-News has video from June 25, showing a man trying to run out of the Las Cruces restaurant about 10:30pm. The door had been locked for the night, however, and the suspect rammed right up against it, before doing a 180 and running off-camera and out another exit, police say. When cops reviewed the surveillance footage and noticed the face-plant, they swabbed the door for DNA and sent it out for testing.

The DNA of 19-year-old Markell Deshaun Barnes came back as a match in the Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS. He was arrested last week in Albuquerque and charged with attempted armed robbery and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, both felonies. Barnes is also believed to be responsible for an armed robbery earlier on June 25 at a local gas station. The AP notes Barnes is being held at the Dona Ana County Detention Center without bond. (More weird crimes stories.)

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