PAXTON — April jury trials for a Champaign man and an Urbana man charged in Ford County with armed robbery and felony theft have been pushed back to July.
Ford County Circuit Court records show motions to continue were recently granted by Judge Matt Fitton in the criminal cases against Devin L. Starkey, 23, of Champaign, and Steffonce J. Moffitt, 22, of Urbana, who face charges alleging they robbed a person at gunpoint at a Paxton park.
Both men, who remain detained at the county jail in Paxton, are due back in court for pretrial hearings on Monday, June 9.
The motions to continue were filed just a few days before their previously scheduled April 14 jury trials were to begin. Their trials were rescheduled for Monday, July 14.
In Starkey’s case, the continuance was requested by his attorney, Lance Cagle of Paxton. In Moffitt’s case, State’s Attorney Andrew Killian asked for the contiuance, which was granted over the objections of his attorney, Harvey Welch of Urbana. In asking for the continuance, Killian noted that DNA evidence was still being processed at the state crime lab, court records show.
On March 20, Killian charged Moffitt and Starkey with one count each of armed robbery with a firearm, a Class X felony, and theft ($500 to $10,000), a Class 3 felony, with Moffitt facing an additional charge of driving with a suspended driver’s license. The two were arrested on March 19 following an investigation into an armed robbery that was reported around 5:09 p.m. March 15 at Fulton Park on Paxton’s southeast side, Paxton Police Chief Coy Cornett said.
According to Cornett, the victim said they were conducting an online sale of two pairs of shoes when they were contacted by Starkey, who offered to buy the shoes and then arranged to meet the victim at Fulton Park for the exchange. When they met at the park, Starkey allegedly displayed a pistol, taking the two pairs of shoes that were for sale plus the victim’s shoes along with $120 in cash, while Moffitt allegedly demanded money from passengers in the victim’s vehicle, Cornett said. The robbers then fled southbound on South Vermillion Street in a gray 2012 Hyundai Sonata, Cornett said.