Men accused of kidnapping, Guntersville robbery denied bond after hearing

GUNTERSVILLE, Ala (WHNT) — Two men accused of kidnapping two women and later robbing a Guntersville jewelry store were in court Monday for an Aniah’s Law hearing.

Police say on March 28, Andre Burgin and Jonathan Banks kidnapped two women, stole their van and drove it to Guntersville to rob a jewelry store. Both men are charged with first-degree robbery.

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The hearing was for a judge to decide, based on several factors including the evidence and previous criminal history, whether the defendants should be granted bond. District Judge Mitchell Floyd denied bond for both Burgin and Banks on Tuesday.

On Monday afternoon, the two suspects were escorted into a Marshall County courtroom.

During the hearing, new details emerged on the crimes the two men are accused of committing. A Guntersville police investigator said the crimes involved in the case spanned from the Birmingham area to Guntersville.

The hearing took less than an hour and the state offered a single witness, a Guntersville police investigator. He testified he reviewed security footage from a gas station in Brighton, the Walmart in Guntersville and Griffins Jewelry store the day it was robbed.

The investigator testified that security footage from a Brighton gas station showed the women being forced into a white van by two masked men, and that the same van was used during the robbery at the Guntersville jewelry store.

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Guntersville police confirmed to News 19 on Tuesday that there were three people involved in the robbery, but did not give any details on the third person involved.

The investigator testified that after the robbery, the men abandoned the van and the two women.

He said they had been zip-tied and had their mouths covered with duct tape. The investigator said police ran the van’s registration and it was registered to the family of the women. He said they were selling tamales out of it.

The investigator said they found a Walmart receipt for zip ties, chains and tape located in a car registered to one of the suspects. Investigators also identified Banks as the man who purchased the items through Walmart security cameras.

Utility vests worn by suspects in the jewelry store robbery caught on security camera were found in the white van after the women called the police, according to the investigator’s testimony. He said Burgin’s cell phone location data placed him at every stop of the alleged crimes throughout the day.

A search of Banks’s phone shows he was “in proximity to the Brighton gas station, Guntersville Wal-Mart, and Griffin’s Jewelers consistent with the statements of the Brighton females, the videos from Wal-Mart and Griffin’s, and the reported robbery,” according to court documents.

Judge Floyd said in his order denying Burgin’s bond, that he is out on bond for a DUI charge out of Blount County.

In the order denying Banks’s bond, Floyd states that he has displayed a “propensity to fail to appear for court. Warrants/notices for failing to appear have issued in not less than three counties (Blount, Jackson, and Marshall) over the course of a lengthy criminal history.”

The court documents state Banks is also out on bond and awaiting trial for assaulting a peace officer unlawful possession of a firearm, receiving stolen property, attempting to elude, and resisting arrest. Bond for that has been revoked as well by the Circuit Court of Marshall County, Floyd said in the order.

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