OSU, Langston Students Arrested In Craigslist Armed Robbery

Agents from the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSBI) arrested three college students accused of luring a victim with a Craiglist ad then robbing him on a rural Logan County road.

The victim saw an ad on Craiglist for a Chevy pickup truck. He called a cell phone number and agreed to pay $3,500 in cash to the seller. They scheduled a meeting at Love's Travel Stop off Interstate 35 at the Guthrie exit.

The victim, his wife and three young children went to the truck stop, but the seller never arrived. When the victim called the seller, he was told to meet the person at a home in rural Logan County. The address turned out to be at the end of a dead-end street.

The victim said as he and his family waited, two women and a man walked up to their vehicle. Both the women had handguns. One of the suspects demanded the victim give her the cash he brought to purchase the truck. She took the money and the three then ran away. No one was hurt.

During the robbery, an Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper who lived nearby noticed a suspicious, empty vehicle parked on the side of a rural road. He waited, and eventually saw two women and a man return to the car and drive away. The trooper stopped the car, but had no reason to hold the people inside, so he let them leave.

The next day, the trooper heard about the armed robbery, and realized the descriptions of the suspects matched the people he'd stopped. He reported the license tag number of the suspects' car, and law enforcement was told to be on the lookout for the vehicle.

Meanwhile, a Logan County detective found a Craiglist ad similar to the one the victim originally saw. The Logan County Sheriff's Office requested help from OSBI. Using the ad, phone records, the car's tag number and other resources, investigators tracked the three suspects to a McDonald's in the 900 block of W. 6th in Stillwater. Agents arrested all three.

Gabriel Barr, 23, Rotesha Jackson, 19, and Sylvia Lee, 22, were booked into the Logan County jail. Barr and Jackson were arrested on a complaint of robbery with a dangerous weapon. Lee was booked for robbery with a dangerous weapon, and assault and battery. Both Lee and Jackson are students at Oklahoma State University. Barr is a student at Langston University.