Stephen Delano Jackson
WINNSBORO – A Winnsboro man is behind bars after confessing to back-to-back armed robberies late last month.
Stephen Delano Jackson, 40, of 249 Ashford Ferry Road, was arrested outside a home on Maple Street on Sept. 30, Public Safety Chief Freddie Lorick said last week. Jackson was identified by clerks from the Master Shell convenience store as the man who walked into the store earlier that afternoon with a handgun tucked into his waistband demanding money. Jackson reportedly fled the Master Shell with $80 in cash from the register and got into a gray Chevrolet Impala parked right outside the store.
When the call came in on the Master Shell holdup, Lorick said, investigators were still following up on the Sept. 25 armed robbery of the Dollar General on the Highway 321 Bypass. According to Lorick, a man later identified as Jackson came into the Dollar General at approximately 8:40 p.m. and asked one of the clerks to show him where the deodorant was located. The clerk escorted Jackson down one of the aisles where Jackson then stuck a hand under his shirt and told the clerk that he would start shooting unless she opened the registers and handed over the cash. Jackson made off with an estimated $500 in cash, fleeing on foot.
The Fairfield County Sheriff’s Office brought out their bloodhound team and searched the area, but with no luck. Lorick said the video from the security cameras, however, gave investigators a pretty good look at the suspect.
Five days later, at around 1:30 p.m., Jackson struck again, walking into the Master Shell, showing clerks a handgun tucked into his pants and demanded money. Witnesses were able to note the license plate numbers on the Impala after Jackson left the store and police later stopped the car near Palmer and Frazier streets.
Jackson was not in the car at the time, and the driver, 23-year-old Christopher Eugene Jamison, told investigators that he had only offered to give Jackson a ride to the Master Shell and had no idea Jackson intended to pull a holdup. Lorick said Jamison’s account rang true and Jamison faces no charges connected to the robberies.
Lorick said Jamison told investigators that he had dropped Jackson off outside a home on Maple Street, where he was picked up by police later that day. Neither the money nor the gun have been recovered, Lorick said. Lorick said Jackson reportedly place the remaining money on the tailgate of a pickup truck parked in the yard of the Maple Street home, but when investigators returned to the scene the money had vanished and witnesses at the scene claimed to have no knowledge of the money.
At press time, Jackson was being held at the Fairfield County Detention Center, facing two counts of armed robbery. No one was injured in either incident, Lorick said.
