Crime & Safety

3 Charged with Using Counterfeit Check at Sam's Club

Police say three St. Paul residents bought almost $1,800 worth of televisions at the St. Louis Park Sam's Club last week—using a counterfeit check.

Three people have been charged with using stolen checks to buy almost $1,800 worth of televisions at in St. Louis Park last week.

Devonte Lee Carter, 20; Brittney Dominique Tyner, 19; and Jason Ramone Slater, 27, all of St. Paul, are each charged with two felonies: check forgery and possession of stolen checks, both of which carry a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

According to the criminal complaints, compiled by St. Louis Park Police Officer Jon Fisher, Slater entered the Sam’s Club store on April 19, applied for a store membership and then bought five 39-inch TV sets worth $1,702, using a check that he said was drawn on his Wells Fargo Bank account.

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Sam’s Club employees were suspicious of the transaction because of a similar purchase earlier in the week, in which someone came into the store, applied for membership and then bought a number of TV sets using a counterfeit check, according to the complaints.

Employees contacted Wells Fargo and determined that Slater was not the account holder for the account number on the check, the complaints say. Employees notified police, who watched Slater leave the store with the televisions, according to Fisher’s account.

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After Slater waited outside for several minutes, a Jeep Cherokee pulled up, driven by Carter, with Tyner a passenger, the complaints say. Slater loaded the sets into the SUV; police followed the Cherokee after it drove away, and stopped it a short distance from Sam’s Club.

Police interviewed the three suspects, who agreed to waive their Miranda rights and admitted that they knew the check that Slater wrote was counterfeit, according to the complaints.

The three told police that they were to be paid different amounts for their participation in the scheme, and Carter and Tyner told officers that they knew a woman named Candy and another person whom they knew as “C-Money” who provided Slater with the counterfeit check just before Carter and Tyner dropped off Slater at Sam’s Club, the complaints charge.

Tyner also told police that she had been involved in other transactions involving Candy in which counterfeit checks were used, according to Fisher’s account.

Carter and Tyner are free on separate $5,000 bonds, and both have omnibus hearings scheduled June 7 in Hennepin County District Court. Slater is free on his promise to make all future court appearances.


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