Metro Police arrested convicted robber Kenneth Antoine Jones in connection with a series of Nashville armed robberies in apartment complex parking lots during which many of the victims, primarily persons of Hispanic descent, were pepper sprayed in their faces.
Jones, 32, of Nicole Lane in LaVergne, was taken into custody on Village Green Drive this morning after he was developed over the weekend as a suspect in the July robbery of a victim in the parking lot of Nob Hill Villa Apartments on Wallace Road. The victim picked Jones out of a photo lineup.
Jones’ arrest follows Saturday’s apprehension of his alleged accomplice, Michael D. Livingston, 39, of John Rice Boulevard in Murfreesboro.
On Saturday morning at 6:30, a 33-year-old resident of Preakness Apartments on Bell Road was leaving for work when he was approached by two men, one of whom put a gun to his chest and demanded his wallet. After taking the victim’s money and cell phone, the second suspect sprayed him in the eyes with a pepper chemical and fled. A short time later, officers spotted the getaway car, a 2006 Pontiac Grand Prix, on Bell Road and tried to stop it. A pursuit ensued and the two occupants fled from the car when they reached Nashboro Village. Livingston, the driver, was arrested a short distance away. A container of pepper spray was found in his pocket. The passenger in the car got away.
Jones and Livingston are suspected in at least ten other apartment complex parking lot robbery cases between July and last weekend. Their photographs are being withheld so as not to jeopardize pending lineups for victims.
Jones was convicted of five robbery counts in 2004 and received a five-year sentence for each count. He was on probation at the time of his arrest today.